Showing you care with Spinach and Sweet Potatoes

Tags

food, grandma, hamburgers, recipe, spinach, sweet potatoes

Last week my wonderful wife started a new job as a full time photographer for a local media outlet…how’s that for vague.  This is the first time we have both had “full time” jobs since 2003.  The lovely wife has certainly been working full time the last couple of years, but it was at home, and not a regular 9-5 gig.  Anyway, this has brought some changes to our life, as you can imagine.

I’m at school with the kiddos each day, and in the past, Sarah would pick up the kiddos at the end of the day.  Now, I’ll be taking them home as well, and it has been an adjustment for everyone.  So, last Tuesday, on my wife’s second day of work, I was charged with making the first dinner for the family in our new life phase…

MUST PREPARE EXCEPTIONAL MEAL FOR FAMILY TO PROVE MY WORTH.

I’m not sure why my mind gravitated in that direction, but I think I was thinking several things at once:

1.  Show the kids that this is an awesome new phase in life with nothing to be worried about.  Now, obviously, it is a great new beginning for our family that will benefit us all.  However, it will be a challenge not to have Mom home after school.  A good meal makes everything ok.

2. Show Mom I can handle after school duty.  I think I was trying to show that the children will be fine under my watchful care.  A properly fed family may hide the fact that I allowed them to watch Phineas and Ferb for an hour…A good meal makes everything ok.

3. Reward the lovely wife for a job well done.  I am super proud of her, and didn’t really want her to come home to hot dogs and macaroni.

So, after a long day, I proceeded to make the following dinner:

Broiled hamburgers on toasted buns

Hand-cut pan-fried sweet potato fries

Sauteed spinach with buttered breadcrumbs.

I’m not even sure if this dinner made any sense whatsoever, but I felt at the time it was the right thing to do.       With all that said, I’ll share some thoughts on how this went.  First, I’ll say that the burgers were just OK.  I’ve done better.  However, the sweet potatoes and spinach were the actual stars of the meal.

I found this recipe for sweet potato fries from the greatest cookbook on Earth, The Internet.  First, I made the spice mixture…it called for steak seasoning, but I had Weber Gourmet Burger Seasoning, which worked just as well.

After that I peeled and cut the potatoes.  Once they were cut we coated them in oil then added the spice mix.  My pleasant daughter was kind enough to mix the sweet potatoes, olive oil, and spices together.

Once that was done, we placed them in the pan and fried them for twenty minutes on medium heat, turning them over every five minutes.  I was honestly surprised how quickly they cooked.

This is what they looked like once they were done.  A few pieces got a bit charred, but overall it looked and smelled incredible.

Meanwhile, I decided to make spinach as well.  Now, about this spinach recipe.  As a kid, this was my absolute favorite vegetable dish.  I would eat mounds of this stuff.  And for the record, no one could make this dish as well as my Grandma Toedebusch.  It’s super simple and very tasty.

My grandma never owned a microwave, so I’m not sure how long this took her back in the day.  For the modern cook, you can be done with this in 15 minutes.  First, I defrosted a package of frozen spinach according to the directions on the package.  Thanks package.

Meanwhile I took a slice of Bunny Bread (That’s what I said) and toasted it.

After I toasted it…I had the lovely daughter break it into pieces in a small frying pan.

I added a tablespoon of butter to the toasted breadcrumbs and let them mingle together.  After the breadcrumbs absorbed the butter, I added the spinach to the pan.  I added a generous amount of salt, stirred it together and shazaam:  Toedebusch Spinach.

All the pieces of a lovely dinner had come together.  Tasty hamburgers, healthy vegetables, a nicely set dinner table, way to go Dad!  Look at this fantastic plate below!

And the lovely wife was stuck in traffic.  So we sat down without her.  The lovely daughter didn’t like the fries.  The amusing son didn’t like the spinach.  I was kind of bummed.

About 20 minutes later, Sarah came home, and she loved the fries and the spinach.  She was very grateful, and the kids were happy to have her home.  All was good.  All in all, I know I didn’t have to try so hard to make a nice meal that night, but I guess it was just my way of saying thanks and I love you to my hard working wife.

I am NOT What You Were Looking For!

Tags

Abraham Lincoln, food, Hannahviolin, search, stats, unusual searches, wordpress

I’ve been away from the blog for a bit too long.  I haven’t posted anything in about a week and to be quite honest, I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately.  So tonight I thought I’d check how my tiny asteroid in the universe of the Internet was doing, and maybe if the mood struck me, I’d write something.

HOORAY!

I have to admit, I am kind of obsessed with the stats page on WordPress.  For those of you who don’t blog, it tells you how may people are viewing your site, what country they are from, how they got there, what they clicked on while visiting your site, their credit card information and SSN…

kidding…I think…

Anyway, one of the most interesting parts of the stats page is “Search Engine Terms.”  This handy section of WordPress tells you what people searched that brought them to your page…and today most people found my page by using the following search terms:

“Fantastic Butts”

“We Like Big Butts Event”

Over half my meager views today (only 12) came from people typing these ever so elegant words into the great Internet librarian that is Google.  Now, I’m not here to judge, but I don’t think that these fine individuals were looking for information on the many uses of pork shoulder (AKA pork butt).  However, I am hopeful that they lingered on my page long enough to learn something, and maybe make a pretty awesome taco.  Yet I also wonder how long they were looking under those search terms before they came to my page.

So, taking a cue from our friend Hannah, who did this earlier this year on her AWESOME St. Louis blog, here are my five favorite/most disturbing ways people came to find STLOUEATS.

5: Kitchen knife unsafe: Two people have found me this way.  Are they looking for information on how to use a knife safely?  Are these professional chefs who like to scoff at amateurs who are doing things improperly?  Or are they people with severed fingers, desperately looking for other people who have befallen their fate…Finally, why am I a resource for this information?

4: Abraham Lincoln Remembers.  My trip to Springfield in August is paying search dividends!  What does Abraham Lincoln remember?  Food?  Chocolate Pie?  His tickets to Our American Cousin?  I want to know what he remembers and what it has to do with my website.  Abraham Lincoln Remembers.  It sounds so profound, yet so meaningless at the same time.

3: Had my minor operation got anesthesia.  Was this person under anesthesia when searching?  Did my blog put him under?

2: Where can I get a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich in Texas?  Hmmmm…I have no idea.  I’ll say Corpus Christi!

1:  Walmart Great Value vs. Velveeta.  Alright, you’re at the grocery store, and comparing Great Value Easy Melt and traditional Velveeta.  You ask yourself, “Do I want the IMITATION Imitation Cheese Product or the ORIGINAL Imitation Cheese Product?”  Will this work in Ro-Tel dip?  Well, I am glad to say I am here to help.  Yes, GV Easy Melt meets, NAY EXCEEDS the high standards set by Velveeta.  To a searching soul out there, you are welcome.

Honorable mention:

Can I build a chimney out of copper? Possibly???  I am not a redsmith.

A diabetic should have a kebab.  They certainly should web searcher, they certainly should.

Cooking Class Episode 4: Jamie Oliver’s Spaghetti Revolution

Tags

Bolognese Sauce, Food Revolution, Garlic Bread, Jamie Oliver, Salad, Spaghetti

Jamie Oliver is famous for his food revolution.  He has been advocating that people in the United States and the United Kingdom go back to eating healthy foods.  A big part of his campaign is to change school hot lunch programs, and to teach kids to eat better meals.  Now, I am not setting my goals that high, but I am trying to show kids that making food is something they can do, and that homemade food is even better when you make it yourself.

With all that said, I used his recipe for Bolognese sauce when making spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad with the kids.

We divided into three teams.  Two teams cut carrots and celery as part of the prep work for the recipe.  I had the moms chop the onions for the kiddos(BIG THANKS TO JENNY AND STEPHANIE!!).  I did not want tears.  Or severed fingers.

Meanwhile, my lovely wife supervised the kindergarten team in making garlic bread.  They combined softened butter, olive oil, garlic and salt in a bowl, then spread it on two french loaves from Fazio’s bakery here in St. Louis.

Once the veggies were chopped, the two teams of older kids heated some oil in a frying pan and then added their vegetables to the pan.  They then proceeded to sauté their vegetables, until they became translucent.  Then they added the ground chuck to their pans.  It took a while, but they browned the meat.  Once it was browned, we added the two cans of diced tomatoes.  Finally we added a can full of water to each of the pans and let the sauce simmer.

The only variation I make to Jamie Oliver’s recipe is that I add tomato paste to the sauce to help thicken it.  The original recipe doesn’t call for it, but I think it makes a real difference in the thickness of the sauce.

The kindergarteners triple washed the lettuce, and our dinner was made.  The only thing we needed to do is boil the spaghetti.  This was a flaw in my plan as I had thought the sauce would take longer to make.  While we waited for the water to warm, we showed the kids how to properly set the table and clean the kitchen.  The kitchen was clean, the garlic bread was toasted, and dinner was served.

Overall, the kids enjoyed the spaghetti, with several asking for seconds.  Everyone loved the garlic bread, and the kids even ate most of the salad.

We’re about halfway through the cooking club this semester, and overall, I think it’s gone well so far.  Hope you’ve enjoyed reading about it.  Have a good week!

A Man, A Pan, and a Plan: Choripan!

Tags

Argentina, choripan, chorizo, Mexico, sausage

This is going to be another post on another pork product…by now, you may be wondering, “What is this guy’s deal?  Is he sponsored by the National Pork Board?  I thought he believed in healthy living?”

Well, I’ll answer those two questions in order.

First, I totally wish I was sponsored by the National Pork Board.  That would be awesome.  Second, I do believe in healthy living, and generally speaking, I try to be healthy.  It just seems as that this blog goes on, the really awesome things I discover or make happen to be slightly unhealthy, and/or pork inspired.  I swear, I’ll try to branch out onto different topics here as we go through the fall.

By the way, as to the health question, I’ve really been trying to eat healthy lunches at school to set a good example for the kiddos.  Last week, my standard lunch consisted of an avocado, a red pepper cut into strips, and cucumbers with hummus.  Also, I discovered a new delicacy last week, avocado on the half shell…it’s a couple of slices of avocado with salt on a half a red pepper.  The kids think it’s a little weird, but I like it.  There you have it, a pork free lunch.

Speaking of pork, let’s talk about sausage.  Sausage is truly a wonder of the culinary world.  Ground meat packed into cleaned intestines doesn’t sound like a real crowd pleaser.  Interestingly, according to historians, people first made sausage by stuffing the leftovers of butchering into the intestines.  I’m really not sure I would have wanted to be the person who tried the first sausage ever made.

“Hey Ugluk, try this.”

“What is it Kozma?”

“Organs, fat, and parts stuffed in this intestine.”

“No thank you.”

But apparently someone eventually tried it, and it certainly caught on since virtually every culture on earth has some variety of sausage.  As a matter of fact, sausage was popular among the Greeks and Romans…so this is an all time winner.

I’ll be devoting a lot of time and blogging to our church’s Sausage Supper next month.  But today, I’m going to be talking about one of the finest members of the sausage family, chorizo.

Chorizo started out in Spain, but traveled with the conquistadores on their many adventures in the New World.  Today, Chorizo is found throughout Latin in various forms from Tijuana, Mexico to Ushuaia, Argentina.  Traditionally, Spanish chorizo was flavored with paprika.  However, the Mexican chorizo that we are more familiar with here in the US is flavored with chili peppers.

On Friday night, I was planning on making sweet potato-chorizo soup, and had already started cooking the chorizo from G&W Sausage here in St. Louis, when the kids told me they didn’t want soup.  On a Friday night after a long week, I was not going to argue.  They wanted leftover spaghetti (more on that in tomorrow’s blog post).  That was fine with me.

Meanwhile, I needed to figure out what to do with the chorizo happily frying on the stove.  I also had a couple of tortas (Mexican bread) sitting around from an event the weekend before.  I immediately had a nugget of an idea.

TO THE INTERWEBS!

I searched chorizo sandwich on google and there was something called a choripan.  A Choripan is an Argentinean chorizo sandwich served on a French roll with their national sauce, chimichurri.  You can also have it with salsa, or any number of condiments.

Immediately inspired, I sliced the torta and began to toast it while the chorizo continued its merry dance in the pan.  Once everything was ready, I sliced open one of the chorizos (I saved the other two for the soup), and placed it on the warm, toasty bun.  Then I placed some Colby Jack cheese, and salsa on top of the chorizo…I did not make chimichurri!

Then I spread some mayo on the other half of the torta.

Here it is before I dug in:

Oh…

My…

Goodness….

This sandwich is AMAZING.  It made me want to go to Buenos Aires and sample the choripan of every street vendor I could find.  I strongly suggest you try it.  So, get yourself some chorizo and become a part of the global sausage community.  Have a great week!

Copper Chimney St. Peters: Going the Extra Mile

Tags

Copper Chimney, Indian, lassi, mid rivers mall, naan, restaurant, st. peters

Is there anything more American than the All You Can Eat Buffet?  It takes many things we as Americans value and puts it together on a plate.  We Americans like the following:

Choice.  If there is one thing we love as Americans, it is the freedom to make choices.  We choose our leaders.  School uniforms are always a battle because it limits our children’s creativity and ability to choose clothes.  We like choice in restaurants.  What size drink would you like?  Sweet or Unsweet Tea?  What sides would you like?  Would you like the You Pick Two Combo?  The buffet is the ultimate expression of our love of choices.

Food in large quantities.  We are obsessed with this.  I think it is because we are always subconsciously worried that we will run out of food.  MUST EAT IT ALL NOW!  As further proof of this, we have Major League Eating* in the United States.

*Major League Eating is sad.  What is sadder is when you look at their site, an add for MLE THE GAME pops up…Also, they currently have a press release regarding a bacon shortage.  Enter their site at your own risk.

Bargains.  If you don’t think Americans value bargains, you have not been in a Walmart at 4am the day after Thanksgiving.  I always find that super ironic.  “Hey, I just celebrated being thankful for what I have.  NOW I WANT MORE.  I WANT IT AT A RIDICULOUS PRICE.  I WANT TO FIGHT OTHERS FOR IT!”  Happy Thanksgiving.  Next comes the always cheerful sounding BLACK FRIDAY…

Anyway, an all you can eat buffet is a combination of these three ideas held dear by the American people.  In my opinion, Indian restaurants have mastered this American concept.

Copper Chimney in St. Peters has been open less than a year, and from what I could tell from the crowd at their Sunday buffet, they are doing very well.

The restaurant has a very clean, open and modern look, with warmly painted walls in a single large dining room.  The Sunday buffet has more choices than the weekday buffet, and is priced at $10.50 per person, rather than $8.50 on weekdays.  The buffet is half price for kids.

And what a buffet it was.  Of course, the usual suspects were there: tandoori chicken, chicken tikka masala, matar paneer, and wonderful basmati rice.  But there were dishes there one doesn’t usually see on a buffet, such as lamb saag (so incredibly tender and flavorful) and chicken chilly, which was described as a specialty of the restaurant.  Also, they had a dish which involved vegetable pakoras in a tangy yogurt sauce.  It was something I had never seen before, but thoroughly enjoyed.  A big treat on the Sunday buffet was the cooler of mango lassi.  For those who have not had it, Mango lassi is a sweet yogurt-based drink, almost like a mango smoothie.  I usually don’t get lassi (because I’m cheap), but it was included with the buffet at Copper Chimney.  It was fantastic.  It made me want to come back during the summer months to enjoy on a hot day.  Finally, the servers bring out baskets of freshly baked naan bread with frequent refills.

I will say this, Copper Chimney has the best naan I’ve had in the St. Louis area.

So, what separates a good restaurant experience from a great restaurant experience?  Service.  Every time that we have been to Copper Chimney, ALL the staff has gone out of their way to make sure we are comfortable, ask how we are doing, and if there was anything they could get for us.  They have asked me how I found out about them.  They have asked me about my kids, and commented on how much they enjoy Indian food.  This Sunday, they asked if we had just come from church.  I am not the most outgoing person, and I think their warm hospitality is to be commended.  I couldn’t do it, and it makes me appreciate this restaurant all the more each time I have visited.

So, if you find yourself near Costco or Mid Rivers Mall and find yourself looking for an excellent meal, check out Copper Chimney.  You’ll find a warm welcome, a huge meal, at a great price.  It’s the American Dream-Indian Style.

Apple Goodness Continued…

Tags

apples, fall, food, Martha Stewart, pork chops

I wonder why we like apples with pork so much?  One of the first family functions I brought my wife to was a cousin’s wedding back in 1999.  Most of my family on my Mom’s side of the family are farmers, and the main course at the reception was a whole roasted hog.  I still chuckle at my lovely wife’s look of horror as the hog was on display in the buffet line, with the red juicy apple firmly placed in it’s mouth.  It was almost as if the pig just happened to be lounging under an apple tree, eating a Red Delicious, when it fell into a 400 degree pit.  Why do we do this?  It’s not like we bit into the pork and said, “This is really apple-y!”  Anyway, we seem to think these two go together.

So, there we were, a week after the apple picking extravaganza and we still had a large amount of apples around the house.  Additionally, about all we have left in the freezer right now are various cuts of pork, and you have a dinner pairing made in hog heaven.

I found a recipe from Martha Stewart’s website that seemed like it would fit the bill.  The recipe is HERE, but I’ll show you what we did below.

First I used the handy apple slicer-corer to cut up three apples.

Then I sliced up one whole onion.

I had four pork chops which I proceeded to pat dry (Thanks Julia Child) and season with salt and pepper.

I put a tablespoon of olive oil into the frying pan and fried the pork chops until they had browned on each side.

After they were cooked, I placed the chops on a heated plate and melted two tablespoons of butter back in the pan.  I added the onions and apples, and let them brown with the pan drippings and butter.

After about five minutes, I poured a cup of apple cider back into the pan.

The recipe called for apple cider, beer, or just plain water.  Once again, we still had plenty of cider left over from the week before, and this was a good use.

Next, I placed the chops back into the cider-onion-apple mixture.  At this point, you need to let the sauce boil down for about 15 minutes.  By that time, there should be little cider left, and you really have a sauce to go with your chops, apples, and cider.

Overall, it was a satisfying fall dish, and a good way to use our apples in a non-dessert way.  Now that it is cooler, what is a fall dish you really enjoy?  Let me know!

Quick Bites: Thai Kitchen

Tags

beef, cilantro, iced tea, Thai, Thai Kitchen

I’m a bit wordy.  So in the spirit of being succinct, I’m going to keep this review short and sweet. (I’m already being wordy)

Last weekend, the lovely wife and I had a Saturday to ourselves.  We dropped the kids off at Grandma and Grandpas, and spent a lovely afternoon to ourselves, shopping, talking, and relaxing.  We had a trivia night that evening, (Which we DOMINATED!) and wanted to have a light dinner.  I REALLY wanted Thai beef salad, and Thai Kitchen in Maryland Heights was on our way back home.

It was around 4:20, and we were the only people in the restaurant.  All the staff were very nice, and we both ordered a Thai Iced Tea (which at $1.95 is a GREAT value!)

The beef salad was less than $10.  The salad was piled high with succulent beef, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, and cilantro.  It was PERFECT.  The lovely wife had crab rangoon, which was its fabulous guilty pleasure self.  There was so much beef salad leftover, I had a hearty lunch on Sunday.

Within minutes, we were out the door with a box full of beefy goodness, fully fueled to dominate a trivia competition.  Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures, but I will just say if you find yourself near Dorsett Road and 270, take a quick detour for a terrific Thai meal.

REVOLUTIONARY SANDWICHES FOR THE PROLETARIAT! (Plus thoughts on the importance of geography)

Tags

apple, cuba, cuban sandwich, ham, iOS 6, maps, miami, pork, salami, tampa

I teach geography.  As a matter of fact, I’m pretty obsessed with geography.  Last Saturday, my iphone informed me that I could update to iOS6.  I immediately thought, “Update good.  Phone better.  Apple trustworthy.”  So, I did it.  Later that afternoon, I took the kids on the apple picking adventure I blogged about earlier.  I had never been to this apple orchard, and put it into my trusty Maps application.

What the….?

Why are there these big green signs?

Why does it show me a horse farm in Massachusetts?

Once I got back home that day, I read Apple was making maps.  Bad maps.  You know, accuracy is pretty much the most important thing on a map.  I really harp on this point with my students, and this screenshot gave me the perfect opportunity to discuss the importance of maps, accuracy, and why their knowledge of geography will enable them to be less dependent on machines.

What do you notice is wrong about this map?  Look closely for ten seconds:

Now we live in a rural area, and it’s not like there are tons of roads to label out here.  Was the Apple Genius/Cartographer just lazy?  Did they think I wouldn’t notice?  Which Highway 94 do you take?  What about the people who live on Highway H?  Are people not able to get to their homes?  Second, Notice there are also two towns with the same name on this map: Portage Des Sioux.

Colloquially known as “Portage”, this town has been located along the Mississippi River since the 18th century.  As a matter of fact, an important treaty between the US Government and a plethora of Native American tribes was signed there in 1815 that basically said that these tribes would get the heck out of Missouri permanently.  It’s a nice little town that has risen and fallen with the Mississippi Rver many times throughout its history.  But, to the Geniuses/Cartographers at Apple, it’s not too important, so they put its location in a farmer’s field in addition to the actual location just to cover their bases.

At this point, you may be asking yourself again, “Why is he talking about this?”  Well, I’ll tell you…

GEOGRAPHY MATTERS.  And getting kids to care about geography is my job.  How do you do that?

With delicious pork filled sandwiches.  Recently, we were studying the geography of Latin America.  The kids made Power Point presentations with their laptops about different Latin American countries.  One requirement I had was to include a recipe native to their country.  There were a lot of interesting recipes, including sweet potato popsicles from the Dominican Republic, fried plantains from the Bahamas, and a papaya drink from Panama.  One of my students did a presentation on Cuba.

I’m fascinated by Cuba.  It’s so tantalizingly close to the US, but so far away due to our political differences.*  I’d totally love to go there.  An island full of baseball, beaches, cigars, and beautiful scenery sounds wonderful.  On top of this, they make one fantastic sandwich.

*How are these two men still running a large country?

If you are wearing jumpsuits in public, your global credibility generally deteriorates.  By the way, what is the deal with Communists and their jumpsuits?  Kim Jong Il had his brown North Korean jumpsuit and Mao Zedong had the blue Mao Suit…Something about equality among the people I guess.   Back to sandwiches!

A Cuban Sandwich is made by layering ham, roasted pork, swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard between Cuban bread, then pressing it on a hot grill, letting all the flavors meld together into a mass of meaty goodness.

So, after all the presentations we decided we would have a Latin American Lunch on Friday.  Some students brought in dishes for bonus points, and I promised we would make Cuban sandwiches as a class.

Now, this did mean some prep on my part.  The biggest thing was roasting some pork.  I found a recipe for Cuban roasted pork on the interwebs, and stayed up until well past Midnight on Thursday making it.  The key is adobo seasoning.  If you want a recipe for adobo, click here.  It’s super good, and I’m looking forward to using it again.

The next morning I was getting my ingredients together to bring to school, and what should I behold in the back of the fridge, but an unopened package of salami.  Apparently, there is some disagreement in the Cuban communities of Florida, about what is the TRUE Cuban sandwich.  In Miami, they prefer just ham and pork.  In Tampa, they like ham, pork, AND salami.

I will not argue with the good people of Miami, but three meats beats two any day.

So, after a riveting game of “LABEL THAT CANADIAN LOCATION” (We’ve moved on in Geography) we went down to the kitchen to assemble the sandwiches.  I had four loaves of french bread that I split between four groups of students.  The kids followed directions and assembled their sandwiches, with the boys (of course) using the most meat.

I don’t have a grill press at school (Imagine that!)  Instead, I used two electric skillets as my sandwich press.*

*I STRONGLY EMPHASIZED TO MY STUDENTS AND TO YOU DEAR READERS TO NOT DO THIS AT HOME…

but it totally worked…

Anyway, we sliced into our pressed sandwiches and enjoyed their wonderful flavor.  Interestingly many people commented it was the pickles that really brought the sandwich all together, and I would have to agree.  In addition to the sandwiches we also had fried plantains, papaya drink and sweet potato popsicles.  (There was also lemon meringue pie and three layer dip, offering an American flavor to the festivities).  The sandwiches were a HUGE hit.  Overall, I think the kids got a greater appreciation of the many flavors that make up the cuisine of our many neighbors south of the border.

Any favorite Caribbean or Central American dishes to share?  Let me know!