Meal Plan Monday #10 Casserole Week

It is casserole week! The beauty of a good casserole is that it can be made ahead, and so yesterday I spent all day in the kitchen making main and side dish casseroles in individual portions, so I can mix and match. I’ll pull things out of the freezer this week without having to go to a lot of trouble. 

Here is my plan, but no guarantees that I’m sticking to it 100%.

Monday - Ham Steak, Party Potato Casserole, roasted carrots

Tuesday - Chicken Noodle Casserole, side salad

Wednesday - Oriental Beef Casserole, hot rolls

Thursday -Hot Chicken Salad, mixed fruit

Friday - Pizza delivery

Saturday - Salisbury Steak, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole

Sunday - Breakfast for dinner: Egg Brunch Casserole, Hardee’s Raisin Cinnamon Biscuits, fruit

Here is my seasonally appropriate tablescape for the week.

 What’s cooking at your place?

This post contains affiliate links.

Simple Sautéed Mushroom Medley

Sometimes I over think things. I think this is owed, in part, to the late Mr. O-P. Anytime we had a dinner party he wanted every dish to be perfect. He would pour over recipes, cookbooks, magazines, saved clippings, until he came up with a menu that he considered unparalleled. Nothing could be simple; everything had to be complex. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it did make some of our dinner parties rather stressful.

These days I seek simple yet elegant, flavorful yet easy. If you feel the same, then let me introduce you to the Chef’s Mix Mushroom Medley from Melissa’s Produce, featuring the world’s most delicious mushrooms - Oyster, Baby King Oyster, and Shiitake. If the fact that these mushrooms all contain iron, copper, B vitamins, and are being studied for their potential benefit to help prevent or alleviate certain cancers don’t sell you, then perhaps the fact that having these on hand takes away the heavy thinking about preparing a side dish will. This toothsome variety of mushrooms is just waiting to be sautéed in a bit of olive oil and butter. (I like to sprinkle mine with a pinch of Montreal Steak Seasoning to bring out the earthiness, but that’s just me.) This is all it takes for a nutritious, tasty, elegant side dish. They go wonderfully with beef, pork, chicken, or fish, and are also a wonderful addition to a full English breakfast. Nothing could be easier.

Simple Sautéed Mushroom Medley

1 6-oz. pkg. Melissa’s Chef’s Mix Mushroom Medley
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Pinch Montreal Steak Seasoning
Chopped fresh parsley, if desired

Remove mushrooms from package, wipe down with a soft, clean cloth; set aside. (If you prefer, at this point you may halve the larger mushrooms.) Add oil and butter to a 9-inch skillet, and heat over medium high heat until the butter starts to bubble. Carefully place mushrooms into pan, and allow them to cook 3 to 4 minutes, shaking or tossing pan gently in the doing. Dust with steak seasoning, if desired. Turn out onto a heated serving dish or plate, and sprinkle with fresh parsley if desired. Serves 1-3. Can be doubled.

PRINT RECIPE

If this isn’t fancy schmancy enough for you, then try the Lemon Pepper Mushrooms and Leeks.  Delicious and dazzling!

This post contains affiliate links.

Exotic Asian Tea

During the month of February, afternoon tea has a bit of a different look. It’s more exotic than usual with a snack that speaks volumes.

I had fun putting this vignette together. It really was a bit of serendipity. The tray belonged to Jim. He’d had it long before we ever got together. It wasn’t exactly my style, but something told me to hang onto it, that one day I would find a use for it. I did! Meanwhile, number two son no longer had room to store his Chinese tea pot, tea cups, and leaf saucers, so asked me if I could do it. That was all I needed to get a marvelously good start.

 A simple vase of yellow snapdragons, some Asian fabric, my new vintage hotel bell (it really works and I love it!), a handful of fortune cookies, and I was ready for a nice cup of tea.

I plan to use this during the entire month of February, after which I will be thinking spring!

If you like fortune cookies, you can make your own. I’ve done it, and it’s not as difficult as you think. You can find the recipe here.

Sharing with Tablescape Thursday

This post contains affiliate links.

Sole Meunière

During my Aldi excursion last week I bought a package of frozen fillets of sole. Now, I am not a buyer of frozen fish. Ever. These were on sale, and it was purely an impulse buy. When I got home, I wondered what I was going to do with these. I decided to look around for some recipes and came upon Andrew Zimmerman’s recipe for Sole Meunière. It looked incredibly easy (it was), and I had all of the ingredients on hand, so I figured why not. 

This ended up being one of my favorite 30-minute meals. The capers do have to be soaked for 45 minutes to get the salt out of them, so you have to plan a little bit ahead. I put a small potato into the oven to bake for those 45 minutes, so that by the time the fish was finished the potato would be as well. The peas I just microwaved for a minute until they were done. I sat down in front of the fire with the most delicious plate of restaurant-quality food, and was enormously proud of myself. You have to try this. It is SO good!

Sole Meunière

Adapted from Andrew Zimmerman

2 T. salt-packed capers, rinsed

2 5-ounce sole fillets

Kosher salt

Pepper

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1-2 T. unsalted butter

1/3 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon minced parsley

In a small bowl, soak the capers in cold water for 45 minutes. Drain and pat dry.

Season the fish with salt and pepper. In a shallow bowl, whisk the flour with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Dredge the fillets in flour and shake off any excess; transfer to a platter.

In a large skillet, melt unsalted butter over moderately high heat. Add sole fillets to the skillet and cook, turning once, until golden brown on both sides, about 4 minutes total. Transfer to a platter.

Add the capers to the skillet and cook over moderately high heat until lightly browned and fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the white wine and lemon juice and cook over moderately high heat until reduced to 2 tablespoons, about 1 minute.

Remove the skillet from the heat and add the butter, a few pieces at a time, whisking until the butter is melted before adding more. Add half of the parsley and season the sauce with salt and pepper. Pour the warm sauce over the sole and garnish with the remaining parsley. Serve immediately.

PRINT RECIPE

This wonderful recipe for Flounder with Champagne Grapes can be made with sole as well. Delish!

This post contains affiliate links.

Chinese New Year Greetings!

Okay, here’s the thing -- Valentine’s Day is a tough day to celebrate when you’ve lost your sweetie. My first Valentine’s Day after Jim passed away was excruciating. I’d like to say that they’ve gotten better, but not so much. So I have decided, that instead of celebrating Valentine’s Day, I am going to, every year, celebrate a different holiday in the month of February. It gives me something to research and look forward to, and it may give you an idea or two as well.

This year I am celebrating Chinese New Year. I’m using the same tablescape that I used last year (that you can see here), but this year in addition to my dinner, I decided to send out Chinese New Year cards instead of Valentines. I had a blast! It was so much fun to get the old card-making creative juices flowing, as well as blow the dust off of my rubber stamps in order to decorate envelopes.

I got such an amazing outpouring of love from the Christmas cards that I sent last year (that you can see here), that I decided to, once again, design my own card, and came up with these. They were a lot of fun to do, and the recipe for pork dumplings is to die for! If you can’t read the recipe in the card, not to worry, I will be doing a blog post about them soon.

If you want to see some of my past greeting card efforts, click on the holidays named below. Meanwhile, I am looking for ideas for some of the more obscure holidays worth designing a card for and celebrating. Weigh in if you know of any. Who knows? I may accept your challenge!

Valentine Card

Halloween Card

Christmas Card

This post contains affiliate links.

Meal Plan Monday #9 Slow Cooker Week

I don’t have a lot of time to cook this week, so I have designated it to be slow cooker week. All of the meals that I’m having are going to be made in the slow cooker. I do love a good meal, but I also love easy. This is a perfect combination of both.

Monday – Porcini Chicken, mashed potatoes, salad

Tuesday – Slow Cooker Melt-in-Your-Mouth Meatloaf, potato pancakes (from leftover mashed potatoes), green beans

Wednesday – Crockpot Butter Chicken, rice

Thursday - leftovers

Friday – Chinese Beef and Bok Choy, leftover rice (from Wednesday)

Saturday – Chicken Enchilada Soup, Beer Bread

Sunday – Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak, mashed potatoes, peas

This week's place setting.  More to come on this one!

This post contains affiliate links.

Butter Cauliflower Bowls

As you know, if you read this post with my review of one of the newest books on cooking with cauliflower, I have lately been embracing cauliflower.

I am also a follower of the Damn Delicious blog because her recipes never fail me. Recently I found one for a cauliflower version of Indian Butter Chicken, one of my favorite dishes. I make mine in the slow cooker because it is so easy, and I shared that recipe with you here.

Because it is so cold and windy today I told myself I was going to stay in and experiment in the kitchen. So today I tried this recipe. Wow! It is not just good, it is super good! In fact, I could not believe how good it was. I mean, how many times do you find yourself making yummy sounds while eating a vegetable? When I ate this, I did. It got to be embarrassing.

What a wonderful vegetarian meal. I didn’t miss the chicken at all. If you do, substitute chicken for the cauliflower, or use both. I made a couple of changes in that I used chipotle chili powder to kick up the heat, and served mine with cilantro lime rice, because it adds additional flavor. If you’re interested in that, my recipe is below, if not, just use plain. 

Butter Cauliflower Bowls

from Damn Delicious

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, diced

1 T. freshly grated ginger

2 t. garam masala

1 t. chili powder

1 t. ground cumin

¼ cup tomato paste

1 (15-oz.) can tomato sauce

2 cups vegetable stock

Pinch Kosher salt, to taste

1 head Melissa’s Organic Cauliflower, cut into florets

½ cup heavy cream

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Melt butter in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic and onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes.

Stir in ginger, garam masala, chili powder, cumin and tomato paste until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Stir in tomato sauce and vegetable stock; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced and slightly thickened, about 5-7 minutes.

Stir in cauliflower until tender, about 8-10 minutes.

Stir in heavy cream until heated through, about 1 minute. Stir in cilantro; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve with rice.

Cilantro Rice

1/2 cup basmati rice, rinsed and drained

1 cup chicken stock

1 T. butter

Pinch of salt

1½ teaspoons fresh lime juice

¼ -1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Place rice, stock, butter, and salt into small saucepan. (I spray mine with Pam to prevent sticking.) Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until the rice is tender, about 17 minutes. Stir the lime juice and cilantro into the cooked rice just before serving. If you love cilantro like I do, feel free to add even more!

PRINT RECIPE

If you like cauliflower like I do, then you will enjoy this spectacularly easy and delicious Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon Parsley Dressing. Even the kids will love it!

This post contains affiliate links.