(From The Appetizer Collection at emealsforyou.com)

Baked Garlic

Regular readers will remember that I posted last week on a Neighborhood Dinner Part I am having this Saturday.  On the menu was Baked Garlic and TJ’s Special Sipping Sauce as appetizers.  When creating the menu for I always look for courses that will compliment the main dish and is fairly easy to prepare and easy on the budget.  I first had the baked garlic at a restaurant in Chicago, Bistro 110, in Watertower Place.  They served it with hot and crunchy french bread and salty butter.  The smell of the sweet garlic added to the whole Bistro experience.

The purpose, at least for me, of serving appetizers is to give me a little more time in the kitchen once the guests arrive and prior to the meal. sometimes I serve it in the kitchen with drinks and sometimes I serve it in another room, depending on how much confusion in going on in the kitchen at the time.

For this meal I am serving this garlic along with TJ’s Special Dipping Sauce.  This dipping sauce came about when my brother-in-law, not the rocket scientist for those frequent readers out there, took us to dinner and raved about the dipping sauce.  We put together the recipe from what we remember we tasted in the dipping sauce.

Bottom line is keep your appetizers reasonable from a preparation standpoint and also remember that if your guests fill up on appetizers they won’t have room for the wonder main course you worked so hard on.

Baked Garlic

Cut just the very top off the garlic; pour oil over garlic. Salt and pepper to taste. Wrap garlic in aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until soft. Remove from foil, and plate. Serve with toast points, warm, crunchy french bread or crackers.

Many of us believe we are feeding our families good and healthy food most of the time.  We take great pride in using low fat this and that.  The problem is that we are not looking at the whole picture.  When taken as a whole, chances are we are really leaving a huge hole in their nutritional needs while most likely overdoing it on the fat and sugar.  I hear you, even through the Internet you are screaming, NOT ME.”  It’s time to put up or shut up.

I propose a challenge; I challenge you to record all the meals and snacks you prepare for your family for a two week period.  I strongly feel that when you go over your meals you will find that there may be a large area you can improve on.  I have a cheat sheet for you to enter the meals and snacks, just click here to see it.

The ideal test would be for you to fill this sheet out without knowing you will evaluate it after two weeks.  There is a chance knowing you are going to be accountable for the nutrition of your family may influence what you prepare.  The good side of this is that if you are more careful then it is a lesson learned and hopefully you will be more diligent in the future.  This exercise is geared to help you become more cognizant of how to feed your family better and learn to plan your meals better.  No one will be looking over your shoulder to compare notes, although having a coffee session with a few of your friends who also take the challenge may help all of you develop better habits.

I am interested in how this works for you.  Please feel free to add your comments after you give it a try.

(From The Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)

Pine Nut Baklava

I know this is weird for those of you who look upon cooking as a chore but every once in a while I get the urge to put together a full dinner party.  This differs from most of the meals I prepare in that I make several different complete  courses.  My wife thinks I usually overdo it but then again she likes the food I serve so the complaints are muted.

A group of the neighbors have been getting together to let our dogs run and enjoy some wine and conversation.  As we did or rather Debbie did the picnic thing for Memorial Day (see Best Ribs Ever) I thought it was time to do the full blown dinner party thing. Here is the menu for those who want to know what I will be serving along with the Baklava recipe.  It may not seem like it, but I picked these recipes as they are both easy, can be made before the guests arrive and won’t destroy the budget.  Here is the recipe for the Baklava which will be part of one of the desserts.  Yes I did say part ; so if you are like my wife… right about now you too are thinking I may be a little over the top with this dinner.

A quick note on Meal Planning.  Notice that I have the menu pretty much set, the recipes printed and the shopping list printed a full two weeks out from the event.  This will allow me to find what I need and also watch for sales on the ingredients; saving money and relieving stress.

Neighborhood Saturday Night Dinner

Drinks

Martinis and Wine

Appetizers

Baked Garlic

TJ’s Special Dipping Sauce

Salad

Warmed goat cheese medallion  served on  Mixed Greens with French Vinaigrette

Main Course

Bistro Chicken

Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes

Haricot Vert

Bread

French Rolls

Dessert

Deconstructed Hazelnut Cheesecake

Roasted Pears with Blue Cheese Fondant and Pine Nut Baklava

Pine Nut Baklava

Chop the toasted pine nuts and combine with half the butter, honey, and cinnamon in a bowl. Lay 2 pieces of the filo dough on a flat surface, melt remaining butter and brush the filo with the butter, dust with powdered sugar and 2 Tb of the nut mixture. Repeat with the remaining filo, capping with the last piece of filo. Cut the filled filo to fit an oven-proof pan. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the simple syrup in a pan and reduce by half. Pour half of this on top of filo and spread evenly. Bake for 30 -40 minutes , until lightly browned. Pour remaining simply syrup over the top and allow to cool. Cut into serving pieces.

The recipes for this meal and much more can be found at emealsforyou.com

Growing up we always had someone stopping by to say hi.  My parents’ friends would stop by without notice on their way home or just because they were driving by.  After dinner my parents would sit out on their front porch, either in the old metal glider or the rocking chairs and talk about their workday while waving to the many people who would honk their horn going by.  It was a different time and place, people weren’t as rushed and had time for each other.

After returning from 4 years in the USAF we settled down in the same general area that our parents lived in.  Seeing old friends and making new were an everyday occasion.  As we grew up stop-by visits with friends and relatives was a regular thing.  Friends would stop by for a drink or dinner or we would stop at their houses  for the same.  It was a more relaxed time.

So now let’s jump to today’s world.  Garage doors go up, cars pull in, garage doors shut.  Our world becomes defined by work, meetings and planning for more work and more meetings.  We lock ourselves in our tight houses communicating via cell phone.  I guess if we put a photo of someone on our phones, so that when we receive a call from them we actually see their picture, we feel closer.  Front yards are for showing off, backyards are fenced for privacy.  A select group of friends make  “appointments” weeks in advance to come by for a drink or maybe a meal.

So maybe we were a little less savvy back then, a little less sophisticated.  Times were easier and less intense… but it seemed special as I look back on it now.

Dogs may be the answer, yes dogs.  In our neighborhood most people have dogs, maybe they have transferred the need for freindship to those furry creatures mindlessly chasing a ball.  The good news is that walking dogs get all of us outside… somtimes at the same time.  Conversations start up, parties are planned; people are even wandering into the backyards to share a drink and a meal.  Maybe we don’t need a porch glider, maybe a dog is just the right thing.

(From The Fish Entrée Collection at emealsforyou.com)

Tilapia with Golden Raisins

My wife likes fish and I don’t.  I try to make fish for her about once or twice a week , so I am always looking for a quick and easy recipe that is both good and easy.  Something that won’t make me feel as though I just slapped it together.   Tilapia is a light and fairly inexpensive fish that is getting more and more common in the grocery stores.    Ideally suited for a summer dinner, served with rice and a small salad this is both satisfying and great for those who are watching their weight.

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog you know I like to add raisins to almost any dish.  Golden raisins add a surprising sweet and moist touch to the dish.  The sweetness offsets the acidity of the wine and the pine nuts add some crunch.  Start to finish in less than 10 minutes; you would be hard pressed to come up with a better meal, good and good for you.

Tilapia with Golden Raisins

Mix salt and pepper with rice flour. Dredge Tilapia filets in flour, shaking off excess. Heat oil in pan and sauté filets for 3 minutes per side. Remove filets from the pan, keep warm. Add raisins, pine nuts and wine, simmer for 2 minutes, add butter, remove from heat and swirl until melted. Pour over filets and serve.

Caution!

As the economy continues to struggle the use of coupons grows.  People who never or seldom used coupons are now clipping and saving at a furious rate.  My concern here is that coupon usage is, as Martha Stewart would say, “a good thing” on the other hand overuse quickly becomes an obsession.  Saving money  on those items you need for daily life is a good thing; making coupon usage a competitive sport is not so good.

I believe somewhere in the middle is the right touch.  We should plan our needs (read meals), then pick those coupons that assist us in feeding our families good and balanced meals.  Just because the manufacturer of peanut butter puts out a coupon doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the right time to purchase a case.  This is not say that buying a few extra isn’t a good idea it is just that most of us will get into a buying frenzy and spend more than we should on peanut butter and not have money left for more important items like meat, fish and vegetables.  I see way too many shopping carts in the checkout line with large quantities of coupon items, mac and cheese boxes, taco “kits” but no meat to go with them.  My fear is that their families are getting the same meals over and over and not more balanced meals that would come from a more planned approach.  There is absolutely everything right with saving money where you can, but one should balance the savings with a smidgen of common sense.  Sorry, no coupon available for that.

For added insight see our posts Grocery Shopping – Inattention Can Cost You Big and Are You Tough Enough to Win the Coupon Wars?.

(From Salad  Collection at emealsforyou.com)

Artichoke Potato Salad

In a recent post I told you that my NY City son, make that Tony Award winning son (apologies for the bragging but you gotta do what you gotta do), asked me to come up with a cookie recipe for a cookie he had in NY City.  So it was not a total shock when my mother-in-law was speaking to my wife about a delicious potato salad she had just had at a luncheon and wanted to know if I could re-create it.  Here is what was given to me to help in coming up with the recipe, ” it was a potato salad with artichokes but mainly the dressing was the oil that the artichokes came in.”

I look at these requests as challenges; although it does make it easier if I have actually tasted the food.  Not having that advantage I try to think about what would taste good using those particular ingredients.  I think I got pretty close but won’t know for sure until my mother-in-law makes this herself.  What I can tell you is that the recipe below is really good, different and easy to make.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.

(From The Starch Collection at emealsforyou.com)

fettichini alfredo +

Back in July of last year we wrote a post about finding your : Cooking Comfort Zone suggesting that you use the ingredients you like and not use the ingredients you don’t like.  We would like to take that a bit further.  Take one of your favorite recipes and add something to make it better, or at least different.  You see this all the time; do you want chicken in that salad?

Take that Spinach Salad and add some Mandarin Oranges.  How about adding some chicken to the Caesar Salad? Our choice is to add dried cranberries to Fettuccine  Alfredo and put in some toasted pecans as well.  Again, this is what we think, what is important is that you add what you like.  Just like the restaurants you can add chicken, shrimp, tomatoes, just about anything that appeals to you to make the “same old same old” taste like an entirely different meal. Can’t get your kids to eat vegetables or fruit?  Add it to what they like.  Chances are if you put broccoli in their mac and cheese, after the initial resistance, they will eat it without further comment.  Add some golden raisins or fresh mango and you have an interesting twist on a favorite.  You may find that your family will like the newer version and may even thank you.

2009 Tony Award - Special Theatrical Event

Congratulations to our son, Matt, the Broadway Sound Designer, for the sound design on the ensemble:  Liza’s at the Palace, 2009 Special Theatrical Event Tony award winner.  Great going Matt!!!

(From The Beef Entrée Collection at emealsforyou.com)

Grilled Steak

I am giving you a few weeks to plan this meal.  This will allow you to watch the newspapers for a steak sale and gather any other ingredients you need.  There are a few “secrets” when striving for the perfect steak dinner.  First buy a nice steak.  Choice is better than Select, thicker is better than thin.  Don’t be afraid to ask the meat cutter at the store to cut a fresh steak to your required thickness and size.  When asked, these guys usually like the chance to show off their skills and you will win as the steak will probably be trimmed a little better than the ones in the meat case.

Growing up my father would give each of us a steak.  The first time I went to my then girlfriend’s house for steak they had one large steak cut into strips.  I thought, wow how is this going to work, than after the vegetables, salad and rolls followed by dessert I understood.  Back then it was all about excess, now that excess is hanging around my middle and I have learned my lesson.

I like my steak med-rare; if you like it cooked more just cook it a few minutes longer.  Remember it is easier to put a steak back on if it is too rare then it is to make an overcooked steak good again.  The secret is to cut a small slit in the bottom and take a peek.  If it is too rare pop it in the microwave when no one is looking for just a minute, really one minute will make all the deference.

Don’t get fancy with all the marinades and steak sauces.  Simply put a good amount of salt and pepper on both sides, pour on a little olive oil and make sure the grill is very hot.  Cook for 1 minute per 1/4 inch thickness on each side.  Now, don’t poke it, don’t prod it, don’t move it and don’t flip it until the time is right.  Flip it only once.  When it is done put it on a plate and let it sit for a few minutes to finish cooking and drive the juices back into the steak.  Now would be the time to take a peek and see how you did.

(See the whole meal plan: Backyard Soiree (Picnic Meal Plans) at emealsforyou.com)