Impromptu Dinner for Two

As any wife and mother of teenagers can tell you, it is a lot of hard work trying to plan and cook dinner for several different individuals who may or not be home for dinner on any given evening. Which brings me to today: my daughter wasn't sure until late that she would not be home for dinner as she had to go to football practice. She is still a manager for her high school football team, even though she will be a college sophomore this fall. And then there was my husband. Would today finally be the day I would get to pick up my new car? After all, my husband only "bought" (well, okay, got the paperwork started) my new vehicle (a Honda CR-V) last Monday. But no, they didn't have the color or even the second or third color car I wanted and now, a week later, they are still waiting on the accessories that I wanted. So this has left me supremely frustrated. I have no car, as my dear husband decided to sell his car before I got my new one. I am car-less. Did I mention that I am not amused? Good. Remember that. The only upside that I can see right now is that somehow the dealership managed to get a hold of one of the few elusive vehicles in the color I really wanted. Now, if I could only get the car...

Any way, since I didn't know until late this afternoon who was going to be where for what, I was having trouble planning dinner (and that little problem of not being able to go out to buy food). So this is what I settled on for my husband and myself:

I have 2 Beef Sirloin steaks from Schwan's, vegetable stock, black pepper, salt and unsalted butter. Later, chopped fresh rosemary, chopped onion and a splash of dry white wine would be added.

Here, the steaks sear over medium-high heat in olive oil. The steaks have been seasoned with the salt and pepper

When the steaks are finished cooking, they are removed to a plate and covered with foil to rest.

Now I add the vegetable stock, white wine, onion, rosemary and butter to the hot pan.

Now, why does this picture remind me of The Scream?

Allow to simmer and reduce for a few minutes before moving to a bowl for service.

And this was our hastily put-together meal. The sirloin steaks and the sauce, roasted corn on the cob (also from Schwan's) and left-over baked beans.

And did I mention that at the very last moment I decided to chop up more fresh rosemary to top my corn on the cob? Now, please excuse me while I dig in. Really, don't you have your own dinners to eat?

A Dinner and a Low Carb Snack

Tired of trying to find a turkey burger recipe that would please three separate palates, I turned instead to Ina Garten's Turkey Meatloaf recipe. After reducing it by a factor of 5, I tweaked the ingredient list a bit.

Here we have 1 pound of ground turkey, 1/3 cup panko bread crumbs, 1 clove garlic (just because I felt like adding it), 2/3 cup chopped yellow onion, 1/2 tablespoon good olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (I kept this amount the same as the original recipe), 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon water (to replace the chicken stock), 1/4 teaspoon catsup (to replace the tomato paste), 1 large egg, and catsup to drizzle over the top of the formed loaf.

After cooking the onion and other ingredients per the instructions, the mixture is cooled before adding to the meat, egg and bread crumbs. Remember: De-bling before digging in with clean hands.

I drizzled olive oil in the dish and then placed the loaf in the pan. I couldn't bring myself to douse the loaf with catsup as Ina directed. This went into a 325 degree oven. I also found that it cooked much more quickly than the 1 1/2 hours given in the recipe. I had to turn the oven down so that it wasn't done long before my husband found his way home from the bank.

While I was waiting for the onion mixture to cool, I turned to the jicama slaw ingredients. I found that pre-sliced cole slaw was much cheaper than a head of cabbage at my grocery store, so that and the fact that some man was jealously guarding the cabbages led me to buy the bagged, shredded slaw mix. One half of a jicama and some red onion complete the mix. A pinch of salt was added and light salad dressing , rice wine vinegar and sugar created the dressing.

And we have a finished jicama slaw.

Just in case you have gotten the idea that I am a food snob, I will gladly admit that I often will use packaged foods. I am just very picky about which products I will use. A good quality can of baked beans is one such indulgence. My daughter asked that I add cooked bacon to the dish today. Diced onion, brown sugar, catsup and mustard round out the flavors.

After frying the bacon, I added the onion.

I add catsup, mustard and brown sugar to taste. Then the bacon and onion are stirred in and it bakes for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

The turkey loaf comes out of the oven.

The jicama slaw was good and even my picky family admitted that it was edible. Those kidders.

We liked the turkey loaf, but I will work on adding more flavor to the dish. My dear husband commented that perhaps it needed maple syrup, a la Sandra Lee. The traitor. My daughter and I worry that he might be a closet Fandra.

Proof that watching Food Network can lead to hunger pains: while watching Alton Brown of Good Eats talk about cheese this evening, I was tempted to make Parmesan crisps for a quick and low carb snack.

Inspired by Alton, I grabbed my wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano and the grater I got for Christmas.

I placed one tablespoon of cheese in each heap on parchment paper

One round has been left plain, while another has been sprinkled with paprika and the last with black pepper.

After just a few minutes in a 350 degree oven (I baked them in my toaster oven), they come out and are carefully pried off the parchment. These were very good and I will be making them again.

So, despite the fact that yet another winter storm is heading our way, I have had a very good day. Any day in the kitchen is a good day in my books.