Figuring out when "good enough" is really "good enough"

I've been sick, as in lie in the bed all day, every day, since I got back from my trip to Miami. Today is the first day I've been able to get up, get dressed, and take the poor dog out. Is there anything more depressing than lying in a sickbed, on sheets that could be fresher, watching the dustbunnies multiplying by the minute-- but feeling too awful to do anything about it? As the dust mites assaulted my tender sinuses, I was lying there thinking, HOW DID THIS GET SO BAD? I was only gone 5 days!!

My normal daily cleaning blitz usually consists of:

Morning:

• airing the bed
• cleaning the kitty boxes
• vacuuming spilt litter
• vacuuming the family room and our bedroom (i.e., doing "the middle of the floor")
• rinsing out the bathtub and mopping up any standing water on the tub surround
• swiffer-sweeping the bathroom floor
• making the bed
• washing, drying and refilling the pet bowls
• emptying the dishwasher

Evening:

• restoring the kitchen to order if I've cooked (wiping counters, stovetop, putting away food, loading the dishwasher, etc.)
• washing and drying the dog's food bowl (he eats twice a day)
  
• checking the fridge for food beyond its prime and tossing it
• wiping up any spills in the fridge
  
• cleaning the kitty boxes
• wipe out the microwave
  
• running the dishwasher
  
• swiffer-sweeping the kitchen (if I've cooked)
  
• swiffer wet-jet the kitchen (if I've cooked)

On Wednesdays, I also:

• disinfect the pet bowls
• strip the bed
• change the bed linens
• do the laundry

On Saturdays, I also:

• strip the bed
• change the bed linens
• do the laundry
• do the weekly cleaning

My DC helps me with the weekly cleaning ("heavy housework") on Saturdays.
He does the bedroom and family room (i.e., vacuuming: under the bed, under the sofa, the sofa cushions, the mattress, the stairs, and dusting)

I do the kitchen and baths:

• wash the fridge
• clean the oven
• remove everything and wash the counters and backsplashes
  
• scrub the floors
• wash and disinfect the kitchen trash can
• wash the combs and brushes
• wash the toothbrush holder
• clean the tubs, toilets, sinks
• wipe down the cabinets
• wash the mirrors
  
• clean all the appliances
• change the cat litter
• disinfect the pet eating areas
  

The daily cleaning isn't bad-- it takes me about an hour a day. Luckily we live in an apt., so there's not as much to clean.

The weekly cleaning is a pain, it takes both of us 2-3 hours. The nice thing is, if I don't finish all the weekly stuff on Sat., I can either squeeze it in during the week or it can wait-- AS LONG AS I KEEP UP WITH THE DAILY CLEANING.

And that was the problem: I was too busy getting ready for my business trip to do the weekly OR the daily cleaning on 1/3 or 1/4, and I left on 1/5. While I was gone, DC ran the dishwasher and finished up a load of wash I didn't have time to dry, but otherwise, he didn't have time to do anything else. I work out of our home, which makes it easier for me to get the daily stuff done. DC is trapped at his office from 8-6 most days, then when he gets home, it's on to job #2.

Yikes!! Since I was too sick to do anything, I missed the weekly cleaning this week and the daily cleaning, too. In fact, the last time before today I did daily cleaning was 1/2, weekly cleaning, 12/27. No wonder the house is such a wreck!

Conclusion: I need an emergency routine that can tide us through hectic times, illness, etc. In thinking about it, what was really driving me crazy the most when I was too sick to move?

Honestly, not dust, smudgy mirrors, or the hairy sofa.

What was bumming me out:

• The family room and bedroom carpets (with 3 pets, and 2 of them long-haired, things degenerate FAST)
• stale bedclothes
• overflowing laundry hamper
• filthy pet bowls, breeding heaven knows what biological weapons
• ditto, the bathroom
• ditto, the fridge
  
• stinky cat boxes
• piles of dirty dishes in the kitchen
• counters strewn with partially-empty pizza boxes (actually not this trip, but it has been memorable in the past)
  

Of the weekly cleaning, I think what absolutely has to get done is:

• wash the fridge
• wash the kitchen floor
  
• clean the tubs, sinks, toilets
• wash the bathroom counters
• make sure the towels and underwear get washed
• change the bed linens
  

Of the daily chores:

• vacuum the family room and bedroom
• clean the cat boxes (once is fine)
  
• wash the pet bowls
• put away food
• put dirty dishes in the dishwasher, run when full
  

If all that gets done, it won't be perfect, but the house will still be mostly clean and pleasant. And that really IS good enough.

So next time I'm getting ready for a business trip or am under deadline, it's back to the bare minimum. When I'm sick, or out of town, between my DC and my DS, the bare minimum daily chores should not be too much for them to handle.

Lucky for me, they are ALWAYS glad to help out. My guys are THE BEST!

What I'm Cooking Today

I was on a business trip all last week, and caught the crud that was going around my host site. Whenever I'm sick, my thoughts turn towards comforting foods like tea and toast, soup and bread. For the first time since Friday, I have the stamina to cook. I'm going to make an old standby, 30-Minute Beef Minestrone, and some garlic knots. That shouldn't be too taxing. The minestrone is quick (even if a bit longer than 30 minutes) and delicious, and is served topped with some gremosalata, that fabulous Italian mix of lemon, garlic, and parsley. The garlic knots are my slight variation on Emeril's recipe.

30 Minute Beef Minestrone (makes 6-8 servings)
1 lg. onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2T extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 t. crumbled dried rosemary
2 oz. prosciutto, chopped
1 lb. ground sirloin
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes (Hunts)
1 c. dry red wine
4 c. beef broth
1 20 0z. can kidney or pinto beans (or the closest you can come to 20 oz.), rinsed and drained
1/3 c. orzo or other small pasta
Topping:
1/3 c. freshly grated Romano cheese
1/2 c. minced fresh parsley
1 clove garlic minced
1 T grated lemon zest

In a soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and carrot. Cook until the mixture begins to brown. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the rosemary and cook for 30 more seconds. Add the prosciutto and beef and cook until the beef is no longer pink. Add the tomatoes and wine, and bring the mixture to a boil. Simmer 10 minutes. Add the beans and broth, and bring the soup to a rolling boil. Add the pasta, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the pasta is just done. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix the topping ingredients together, and sprinkle topping over each serving of soup.

NOTE: if not in a hurry, I prefer to brown the beef and prosciutto well in the olive oil first, as they never get brown if you put them in with the vegetables. When it's nice and brown, I remove it to a plate. The ground sirloin does not produce too much grease, so I find I don't need to drain the pan. I also prefer to saute the onion first, then add the celery and carrot, and the garlic last, so it does not burn. Then I add the browned meat and proceed with the recipe. It takes a little longer this way, but tastes a little better. If you are in a hurry, it's also delicious as written.

Presto Garlic Knots (makes about 1 dozen knots)

I take a basic pizza dough recipe and use a rapid-rise technique to make these in half the time it normally takes.

1/2 c. very warm water (120 degrees or so) 1 envelope active dry yeast 1 T honey

Mix these together with a fork in the bowl of a stand mixer, and let stand until the mixture is foamy, about 5 min. (If it doesn't get foamy, your yeast is bad, and you'll need to start over with fresh yeast.) Add:

1T extra-virgin olive oil 1/2 t. salt

Mix until blended.

Using the dough hook attachment, add 3/4 c. unbleached all-purpose flour, and mix on low speed until ingredients are incorporated. The dough will be very wet and sticky. Gradually add an additional 3/4 c. flour to the mixture, a bit at a time. You may not need the entire 3/4 c. You want to end up with a dough that is elastic and moist but not sticky.

Add 1 T extra-virgin olive oil to a clean bowl and coat the inside of the bowl with the oil. Add the dough, and turn to coat with olive oil on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and place in a nice warm place to rise for about 35 min. I often set the oven to "warm" for a few minutes and then turn it off. I place the dough in the warm oven (turned off) to rise.

After about 35 min., the dough should be risen and ready to shape.

Punch down the dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin, into a rectangle about 8 x 6 inches. Brush the dough lightly with more olive oil.

Cut the dough cross-wise into strips about 1" wide.

Spray a large baking sheet with non-stick spray. Tie the dough strips loosely into knots and place on the baking sheet, leaving space between them. (Emeril says 2", but I don't usually spread them out so much.) Sprinkle the tops of the knots with coarse salt. Cover the baking sheet with a kitchen towel and place in a warm place to rise for about 20 minutes, or until puffy.
IMPORTANT: If you put them in the oven to rise, take them out after 15 minutes so you can preheat the oven.

Preheat the oven to 375. Bake the rolls until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

While the rolls are baking, melt 1/4 c. unsalted butter over low heat in a small skillet. Add 1-2 T minced garlic, and cook until fragrant but not browned, about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover, and keep warm.

In a large bowl, grate 2 T of Peccorini Romano cheese. Add 1 T chopped Italian parsley to the bowl.

When you remove the knots from the oven, add the warm butter and garlic mixture to the bowl with the cheese and parsley. Mix to combine. Add the warm knots and toss gently to coat with the garlic-cheese topping. Add salt to taste, and serve immediately.

Check out one of the most AWESOME blogs on the planet!

As I've been trying to recreate some favorite Cuban restaurant dishes at home, I've stumbled across a true gem. La Cocina de Nathan is AWESOME!! Covering not only Cuban cuisine, but Mexican and Spanish as well, it's a treasure trove of fabulous Latin American cooking lore. First of all, Nathan enthusiastically shares his recipes for favorite every day foods, including such basics as yellow rice and black beans. Which may seem as unnecessary to experienced Latin American cooks as writing about scrambled eggs might seem to others. But for those of us who enjoy learning how people really cook the everyday staples of their tables at home, finding a blog like Nathan's is a real treat! Want to know how to make flour tortillas? Nathan shows you how his mom does it.

Nathan's blog is also wonderful because it is illustrated liberally with photos depicting each stage of the recipe-- helpful beyond words! I'd love to do this too, but this would mean actually learning how to operate my digital camera!

I enjoy browsing Nathan's blog most of all because he doesn's shy away from unapologetically sharing even the humblest of dishes, such as Patas de Puerco Cocidas (boiled pig's feet). When I saw this recipe, I instantly remembered how my dad loved to eat pickled pigs feet, and how mortified I was that he did this! These recipes remind us of times when all parts of the animal were used and nothing was wasted. Today, food comes to us so neatly and conveniently that we hardly remember where it came from. We don't even need to concern ourselves with such elementary tasks as boning a chicken breast, let alone butchering and plucking an actual chicken!

I sometimes marvel at how the practical need to economically use up whatever leftovers are in the house results in some of the most delicious foods ever. For example, French Onion Soup is one of my DS's favorite foods. Although now we may think of this as "fancy" food, it's easy to imagine some long-ago French housewife trying to find a use for a few onions, some stale bread, and some nubbins of leftover cheese. I think of these dishes as "the cuisine of necessity."

Sharing cherished family recipes as well as "the classics" of Latin American cuisine, Nathan's blog is fantastic! Check it out.

Tres Leches: Três délicieux!

Having swooned over the Tres Leches cake at several Cuban restaurants, I was determined to see if I could produce a reasonable facsimile at home. Tres leches translates as "three milks," presumably since the cake is soaked in a delectable mixture of 3 kinds of milk, usually including evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and cream in one guise or another.

I searched the web for recipes and found that the process of creating the cake involved a technique (which I call "poke-n-pour") I've used to make coconut cakes in the past. I found promising recipes from both Alton Brown and Emeril on FoodNetwork

After looking at both recipes, I decided I would go with my own cake recipe, the one I normally use for coconut cake. Both Alton and Emeril use either vegetable oil or shortening in their cake recipes, and I prefer the taste of butter. I am sure both their cakes are very tasty, but I've always had good results with my recipe.

For the "glaze," I would go with Alton Brown's ingredients. The cake recipe is a little unusual. Before stumbling across it, I'd heard my friend Ann talk about a "hot milk" cake and wondered what she was talking about. Well, I think this is it!

Here is my recipe for Tres Leches Cake:

Hot Milk Cake (for the Tres Leches base) Makes 1 9x13" cake.
1 c. whole milk
2T unsalted butter
4 extra-large eggs
2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t. salt
2 t. vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9X13 pan (glass is best) with nonstick spray and then flour the pan.
2. Combine the milk and butter in a 2 c. glass measuring cup. Heat to scalding in the microwave. (In my microwave, this takes about 3 minutes.) Add vanilla.
3. While the milk is heating, beat the eggs and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer until thick and lemon-colored, about 5 minutes.
4. With the mixer on low speed, add the hot milk mixture.
5. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together onto a piece of waxed paper.
6. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture. Beat until well combined.
7. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes, or until center is set and a cake tester comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, prepare the "glaze."

Glaze ingredients:
1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk (Eagle Brand)
1 c. half-and-half

Mix these together in a 4 c. glass measure. (Makes for easy pouring.)

Topping:

2 c. heavy whipping cream
1/2 c. powdered sugar

Beat the cream and sugar together until stiff.

Finishing the Tres Leches Cake:

1. When the cake is done, remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes.
2. Pierce holes all over the surface of the cake with a skewer or fork.
3. Slowly pour the glaze over the warm cake, in several passes, allowing the mixture to soak in before pouring more on.
4. Cover the cake with plastic wrap (I find Saran Wrap works best). Chill for at least 6 hrs.
5. Prepare the topping and spread over the cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I don't know if this version of Tres Leches is even remotely authentic, but it was enjoyed by all at my house! This is one of those things that is even better the next day.

I would love to know how to produce a layer cake version of this cake! It's served that way at Carmen's, with whipped cream filling between the 2 layers. How to assemble this as a layer cake without having it fall apart is a mystery to me!

My domestic education (or lack thereof)

I grew up in a home that was always immaculate. We rarely (we're talking once or twice a year here) ate meals in restaurants, and my most vivid memory of my mother in those days is of her walking briskly around the house in her flipflops (accompanied by a kind of staccato flap-flap-flap) and wiping EVERYTHING constantly with a soapy dishcloth. My mom was a fanatical cleaner. In fact, my sister and I (little demon children that we were) used to torment her by deliberately putting our fingerprints on the refrigerator. This was a great way to liven up a dull afternoon, as not only did it supremely annoy Mom, it often provoked her to chase us around the house with her soapy dishcloth. (Luckily, you can run faster barefoot than in flipflops!)

While we never had to put up with a dirty house, unwashed clothes or stale bedlinens, my mom's fanatical cleaning habits had some unfortunate consequences. We got the message, intended or not, that cleaning was more important to Mom than we were. A glass of milk knocked over produced an ireful outburst and fervent scrubbing, accompanied by sighs meant to convey how much extra work our carelessness caused her. My sister and I resolved privately never to become slaves to the drudgery of housework. This was not much of a danger, however, as Mom never taught us how to do any of the housework, likely judging that it was both faster, and more effective, to do it herself. (There is no way we could have produced results worthy of her standards.)

Fastforward 10 years: I was visiting my sister and her husband. Upon my return home, our parents were extremely amused by my report that my sister's bathroom towels were so grimy and smelly, I had no choice but to "drip dry" after taking a shower. Certainly my sister was no drudge to housework!

Fastforward 20 some years: I'm exhausted, and ready to cry. The house is a mess, complete with sticky floors, a sinkful of dirty dishes, a carpet festooned liberally with pet fur, grimy tubs, a refrigerator I had to steel myself to open, and every surface cluttered with "stuff," all scented charmingly by eau de cat pee. In my determination NOT to be like my mother (putting the housework ahead of my family, and cleaning compulsively 16 hrs. a day), I had succeeded in creating not so much a home, as a squalid hovel where chaos reigned and nothing could be found. We didn't live so much as subsist there.

Surveying the disaster that my home had become, I realized that by refusing to do the housework, I secretly felt I was getting away with something, pulling the wool over the eyes of the domestic gods, perhaps. All these years later and it all boiled down to rebelling against my mother. Which was sort of like cutting my nose off to spite my face-- my mother didn't care if my house was clean or dirty! It was my family and I who suffered from the discomfort and depressing effects of filth and disorder. By not keeping house, I had only been punishing myself (and my family) all these years.

With the passage of time, I now understood my mother much better. I remember a conversation with Mom that lit up a lightbulb in my mind. Holding my infant son on my lap and watching her shake out the throw rugs and wipe down the stove yet again, I remarked, "Gee, you must really love to clean!" My mom absently shook her head. "No, it's not the cleaning that I like, it's the results of the cleaning." In that instant I began to understand that my mother cleaned not because she loved it, or found it more important than her children, but because it was one of the few things in her life that she could control.

Home alone caring for my infant son, I experienced a near-crippling sense of isolation, feeling that life was passing me by. As well as the burden of guilt that taking care of my precious and much-beloved baby wasn't "enough" for me. Always living in temporary housing and often ill from climate changes, my mother must have felt that same stultifying isolation as well. Thinking back to those early childhood years, I could now understand that my mom was probably desperately unhappy and bored being cooped up day after day with no human company except for two wilfull little girls. My dad was often away on "TDY", temporary assignment, leaving my mom to tough it out on her own.

In my adult years, I've come to know my mother as one of the most unconventional people I've ever met. An intelligent and athletic young woman, she was a star basketball player with a flair for the dramatic arts. Before marrying my father, my mother had enjoyed a career as a nurse. I'm sure she would have been much happier to have continued her nursing career, rather than staying home to take care of us.

Yet she loved us enough to be there-- enough to accept the round hole of conventionality that her squarepeg soul was never meant for. Though we neither understood nor appreciated it at the time, her love for us was reflected in the sparkling clean kitchen sink, the spotless floors, the the meals she made for us every day, and yes, even the smudgeless fridge. She did not, in fact, enjoy these tasks, but housework was the only sphere of accomplishment open to her. Sadly, our society was moving into an era where all forms of housekeeping were devalued as women began to enter the "real" workforce in unprecedented numbers, and even her own daughters looked scornfully at "housewives."

Being married to my dad, who she dearly loved but who was as different from her as night is from day, could not have been easy. He was a career NCO in the Air Force, and the only thing in life that was certain was that we were going to move again soon. My mother loved stability, my dad had itchy feet and was seized with wanderlust. She loved to stay home, he loved to travel. She liked to save money, and he liked to spend it. The things she could control in her life had bascially contracted d0wn to housekeeping. It's not so hard to understand why my mom cleaned as if her life depended on it-- in a way, it did.

My mother wanted more choices in life for us than staying home and keeping house. Having been frustrated in her own career aspirations, my mother must have envisioned a future for us where housekeeping skills would be irrelevant. Is it any wonder that Mom didn't see fit to give us a domestic education?

Looking at the chaos that surrounded me, I realized that I was not living like an adult, but a rebellious teenager. Adults lived in clean, orderly, pleasant homes that people enjoyed spending time in. My home resembled nothing so much as a neglected dorm room, with half the appeal. Though I couldn't have articulated it at the time, I had stumbled across a simple truth that Cheryl Mendelson so beautifully expresses in her book, Home Comforts. It was this: far from being meaningless drudgery beneath the attention of any intelligent person, housework matters. As Cheryl says, her grandmothers, from whom she received a thorough domestic education, "knew, in their bones if not in words-- that the way you experience life in your home is determined by how you do your housekeeping. "(Mendelson, 2002, p. 7)

Although I had no clue of how to correct my situation, I was truly sick and tired of living like a pig. I wanted a better quality of life, with a true feeling of being "at home" in our house, for myself and my family. I now had so much respect for my mother. She may not have been an educated woman, but everywhere we lived, no matter how temporarily, my mother knew how to transform a dwelling into a home, even with the limited means at her disposal.

Thanks, Mom! You rock!

P.S.: I should explain that early in their married life my sister and her husband were grad students and lived a sort of bohemian existence, where they eschewed things such as cabinets (eveything went on open shelves) and regular cleaning. It was during this period that my "drip-dry" adventure occurred. However, as they emerged into "real life" post-grad school, my sister always kept a beautiful (and clean!) home that is a joy to visit. In fact, she is the most gracious hostess I have ever seen. Clearly, my sister caught on that it is much more pleasant to live in a home that is taken care of more quickly than I did!

Desperation 30-Minute Semi-Homemade Meals

I love to cook, but it's amazing how time-consuming the whole process can be. Between meal planning, grocery shopping, food preparation, and my favorite: cleaning up-- it sometimes feels like a full-time job. Judging from the popularity of shows such as Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals and Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade Meals, we're ALL desperate for shortcuts. Desperation Dinners, by Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross, is one of my favorite cookbooks. It promises delicious, nutritious meals that even kids will eat in 20 minutes or less. You know the authors have lived your life as a "working" mom (hey, all moms work, whether outside the home or not) when one of them confides that she felt like she was on a trapeze-- swinging from weekend to weekend in a desperate attempt to get everything done.

But do these shortcuts work? In my experience, it is not possible to have meals that are 1)inexpensive 2)quick to prepare 3) nutritious and 4) tasty-- at the same time. (Pick any 3!) For example, to pull off their 20-minute miracle meals, Desperation Dinners advises us to purchase tender cuts of meat that can tolerate quick-cooking techniques and to rely on convenience foods such as IQF (individually quick-frozen) boneless chicken breasts. Fast? Yes. Convenient? Yes. Inexpensive? Definitely not. Tasty? Maybe. To my taste, many convenience foods such as chopped bottled garlic, seasoning mixtures, and frozen chopped onions have an "off", fakey flavor and less than desirable texture.

I have a love-hate relationship with shortcut recipes. While I do think it's great that shows like 30-minute Meals have helped to spark a home-cooking renaissance, these recipes often fall short of the mark. They don't always work as advertised or they just plain don't taste good! I guess the trick is judicious use of techniques and ingredients.

Tonight, I decided to try Rachael Ray's 3o-Minute Meal: Pork Chops, Golden Apple and Raisin Sauce, & Whole-Wheat Mac-n-Cheddar. Both DC and my DS are fond of porkchops, so I thought they'd enjoy this. It actually turned out pretty well, but mainly because I have experience with Rachael's recipes (I know some of her weak spots from previous failures) and I am familiar with most basic cooking techniques, such as making bechamel sauce. When I read the recipe, it sounded pretty good. Pork chops with a maple-dijon glaze? Check. Applesauce with raisins and cider? Check. Whole weat mac-n-cheddar? Hold it.

I've had bad experiences both with whole wheat pasta (texture and taste) as well as Rachael's cheese sauces. Scanning the ingredients, I think it is unlikely that 2T of butter and 1 T of flour to 2 cups of milk is sufficient to create a nice creamy bechamel. I think following Rachael's instructions could produce a thin, runny sauce. Also, 1/2 lb. of extra-sharp cheddar seems like a lot for 2 c. of milk.

Having been disappointed by Rachael's sauces in the past, I pulled out my best mac & cheese recipe to use as a guide. It happens to be a Sara Moulton recipe from her marvelous book, Sara Moulton Cooks at Home. Her Baked Orzo with Cheese is fantastic, so I used the cheese sauce from Sara's recipe. Sara calls for equal amounts of butter and flour, and uses 6 T of butter and flour to 3 c. of milk. She uses both cheddar (2. c. shredded) and parmigiano reggiano in the dish, and I like that combination as well. It gives a much greater depth of flavor to the cheese sauce than cheddar alone. I also decided to substitute regular fusilli for the whole wheat shells or penne Rachael calls for. I just don't care for the flavor of "whole wheat" pasta, but I do like the taste of the Barilla Plus multigrain pasta. Unfortunately the Teeter does not carry the Plus version of fusilli, so I just went with plain old fusilli.

Rachael does use some terrific techiniques that can save quite a bit of time. For example, starting the pasta water first while doing other prep, heating pans so they are ready to use when you are, and starting with recipes that can simmer and "hang out" so you can use their cooking time to work on other parts of the meal, are great time-savers.

By starting my pasta water (on low heat) while I made a quick trip to the store, it was ready to go by the time I got home. Heating the milk for the bechamel sauce ahead of time in the microwave also saved time. And one of my all-time favorite Rachael techniques is to blanch the broccoli in the pasta pot during the last few minutes of the pasta is cooking. (I think the only way to prepare really tasty broccoli is blanching in salted boiling water until it's tender but not overdone. My guys will eat it cooked this way, so works for me!)

We were shooting for an 8 p.m. movie, and I didn't get home until about 6:30 p.m., so I was hoping to work the 30-min. miracle, to give us time to eat and get to the theater (luckily only 5 min. from home).

Everything turned out great, and we were eating by 7:15. The food would have been done a bit sooner, had I realized that rather than turning down the burner under the boiling-over applesauce, I turned down the heat under the porkchops. :)

My final evaluation:

Porkchops with a dijon-maple syrup glaze: terrific. The guys really enjoyed them.

Golden apple and raisin sauce: quite tasty, though it needed a bit more dimension of flavor. I'd add mace and vanilla and a little butter in addition to the cinnamon next time.

Fusilli and Broccoli with Sara Moulton's cheese sauce: Delicious! There was a little too much sauce for the noodles and broccoli, so I'd make a bit less sauce next time. But boy, was it tasty!

By using ingredients that we like and techiniques that I know work, this 30 minute meal was a definite success!

Ropa Vieja Triumph!

To start the New Year off with a bang, I made Ropa Vieja, arroz amarillo, frijoles negros, and a tres leches cake for dinner. DC gave it 2 thumbs up, saying it was the best Ropa Vieja he'd had since he lived in Tampa. I'll take that as high praise! I'll post details on the other dishes separately, but wanted to share the Ropa Vieja recipe I developed.

In creating the recipe, I found this video of a Cuban mom making Ropa Vieja very helpful. I think it's wonderful that people are taking the time to document the everyday food they cook. I love fine cuisine as much as anyone, but the simple foods we eat every day have a charm all their own. It's important to document not just our fanciest or finest, but what we actually prepare and eat (not what we think we should eat!).

I believe it was food writer Laurie Colwin who observed our reluctance to reveal what we really eat. When pushed, people will reveal the oddest things, such as a penchant for cold spaghetti noodles with grape jelly at midnight. I love Laurie Colwin-- how I wish I could write like her. I always relished reading her column in Gourmet, to which she was a regular contributor until her tragic death in 1992.

Watching the video reminds me again of the bygone dishes of my childhood, which my mother no longer remembers how to cook. I wish we'd thought to write down the recipes while we had a chance. It was genius for the son and daughter in law on YouTube to not only preserve their family recipes, but also to document their mom actually preparing the food on video.

But back to my Ropa Vieja. Here is my recipe. I think it yields 6-8 servings, depending on portion size. I would estimate the total prep time at 3 hours. Some of that is inactive time while the broth is reducing and the meat is cooling.

Karen's Ropa Vieja

Prep time: 3 hrs. Yield: 6-8 servings

Pt. 1, Cooking the Meat
2 1/2 lbs. flank steak
1 onion, peeled and quartered (I used yellow onions for this dish)
1 carrot, broken into large pieces
1 celery stalk, broken into large pieces
1 bay leaf
small handful of black peppercorns-- 10 or so?
1 t salt (I always cook with Kosher salt)
2 t vegetable oil (it really doesn't matter what kind, this is just to keep things from foaming too much in the pressure cooker)
2 qt water

1. Spray the pressure cooker with nonstick spray.
2. Cut the flank steak across the grain into reasonably sized pieces for shredding (you don't want "strings" 8" long!) From my original 2 pieces of flank steak, I ended up with 5 for the pot.
3. Wash the meat.
4. Add the meat to the pressure cooker along with the onion, celery, carrot, bay leaf, salt, and peppercorns. Add the vegetable oil. Add 2 qt. of water.
5. Seal the pressure cooker and bring to a boil over high heat, until maximum pressure is reached. Turn down the heat to low (about 3 on my electric stove is about right-- and I also put a flame tamer over the burner when I turn down the heat, to keep things from cooking too fast.). Cook at high pressure for 20-25 minutes.
6. Remove pressure cooker from the heat and allow the pressure to release naturally.
7. Carefully open the pressure cooker and remove the meat, placing it on a plate to cool.
8. Strain and reserve the cooking broth, and discard the solids.
9. While the meat is cooling, return the broth to the pot and boil over high heat until reduced to 2 cups of liquid (about 20 min.) . Reserve the reduced broth. Spoon the fat off the top of the broth and discard.
10. When the meat is cool enough to handle, shred (or as the Cuban family says, "string") into thin strips with your fingers. Discard any fat or tough connective tissue you may encounter. Set the shredded meat aside.

Pt. 2 Finishing the Stew

2T extra virgin olive oil
1 lg. onion, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
4 lg. cloves garlic, minced
2 t. cumin
1/2 t. oregano
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes (I prefer Hunts)
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce (Hunts again)
2 c. reserved reduced cooking broth
1/2 c. dry red wine
1 T red wine vinegar
Reserved shredded meat
1 c. green olives with pimientos, roughly chopped
1 T. juice from the olive jar
1/2 box frozen baby green peas (not thawed)
salt and pepper to taste

1. Spray a large pot with non-stick spray. Add the olive oil and heat the oil over medium heat.
2. When the oil is hot, add the chopped onion and saute until softened and translucent, about 5 min. Add salt to taste.
3. Add the bell pepper and saute until softened, about 4 minutes. Add salt to taste.
4. Add the chopped garlic to the pot, and cook just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir often to prevent the garlic from burning.
5. Sprinkle the mixture with the cumin and oregano, and cook, stirring, for about 1 minute to blend the flavors.
6. Add the tomatoes and tomato sauce, reserved cooking broth, red wine, and red wine vinegar. Stir to combine.
7. Add the shredded meat; stir to combine.
8. Bring the stew to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, to blend the flavors.
9. Add the olives, olive juice, and frozen peas. Stir just until the peas are bright green and barely thawed. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.
10. Remove from the heat and serve immediately, so that the peas do not become mushy.

Some Preparation Notes

If you are a cooking dweeb like me, you may enjoy reading my attempt to explain why I did what I did. Otherwise, it's BORING so just cut to The Chase.

• I always spray pans (even the nonstick ones) with non-stick spray. I prefer the Mazola Pure and Natural canola oil spray.
• When I was researching this dish, some recipes called for cooking the meat first, others added the meat to the pot with the other stew ingredients. I decided to cook the meat first, as the meat would need a long simmer to become tender. Long cooking can dull flavors, especially of herbs and spices. Cooking the meat ahead of time prevents the stew from cooking too long and losing flavor.
• Although plain water is used to cook the flank steak in many recipes, I wanted to add additional flavor by incorporating the vegetables and seasonings in the cooking liquid.
• I used yellow onions for this recipe, as they are somewhat sweeter than white ones. Unlike Mexican cooking, Cuban food appears to be more about subtle flavors than heat.
• I did not brown the meat before braising, as that would create a crust, rendering the outer surfaces of the meat tough, dry, and hard to shred.
• I like to use the pressure cooker not only to save time, but I think the meat stays more juicy in the pressure cooker because of the quicker cooking time. Obviously, you could also use a regular pot. I would bring the mixture to a boil and reduce heat to simmer, covered, for as long as needed to make the meat tender enough to shred.
• I had planned to cool the meat in the broth to maximize the flavor, but was running low on time so I just pulled it out and let it cool separately.
• Reducing the broth seems fussy and unnecessary-- but it added a tremendous amount of beefy flavor to the finished stew. I think it might taste a little wimpy without the reduced broth.
• Working ahead: Pt 1 could be done a day ahead of time. That would make the prep time on day 2 significantly shorter. The longest part of the preparation was letting the meat cool. Shredding took surprisingly long too.
  
• The combination of onion, garlic and bell pepper cooked in olive oil is usually referred to as the "sofrito." Some recipes will just say "add 1/4 c. sofrito", for example.
• I believe in salting as I go, as it produces more flavor. However, beyond seasoning the sofrito, I didn't want to add any more salt until after the salty olives and olive juices were added to the stew.
• Cooking the spices "dry" in the oil before adding the liquid is a technique used in Indian cooking. I think it helps to infuse the spices throughout the dish better, and also takes off any harsh or raw tasting edge from the spices.
• I'd planned to use Spanish-style tomato sauce, but could not find any. I decided to try it just with the diced canned tomatoes. After an initial taste, the stew needed more tomato flavor, so I added some tomato sauce too. That seemed to do the trick!
• The olives and peas are optional ingredients, many people do not add them to this dish. My DC prefers it with the olives and peas, and I think the olives and olive juice really add a nice boost to the flavor, and the peas create a pleasant contrast in texture. It is very important not to overcook the peas, so I like to add them still frozen to most dishes, and serve as soon as the peas are just thawed.
• We served this with Cuban-style yellow rice, and it was AWESOME!!

The Chase

I think my Ropa Vieja was a hit-- DC just drifted in for an afternoon ropa snack and said it's BETTER than what he used to get in Tampa. SCORE!!
Quote o' the day: "It makes my cheeks tingle!"--DC.