Main Course Archives | Page 2 of 2

Three Bean Turkey Chili

March 7, 2015 By Karen

I was pretty happy when the phone rang Wednesday night declaring a snow day. We’d already decided that if the call came, it was my turn to stay home with the kids, and I was pretty psyched about it. Granted, as a freelance interpreter that means I would lose 8 hours of income, but staying in my pajamas all day cuddling, cooking and baking seemed like the perfect bright spot for my week. Sure enough, the kids climbed in the bed Thursday morning, and under the fluffy white comforter we finished the graphic novel we had been reading together, El Deafo, by Cece Bell. It’s a memoir about a little girl losing her hearing at 4 years old, what it was like going to school with a giant hearing aid, feeling like an outsider, imagining herself as a superhero, and finally finding her way. It just won the Newberry Honor Award (that should tell you how good it is!), and we absolutely loved it. It appealed to the 8 year old and the 39 year old equally, and even the 4 year old got something out of it. If you don’t have experience with graphic novels, please pick this up. The words written are touching, but the drawings bring the story to life. I am in awe of such talent.

Once our little book club ended, we headed down to the couch and watched the ever colorful Jungles episode of Planet Earth, escaping the snow that was turning everything white outside our windows. Of course, that lead to the a request for Frozen….because, you know, it’s Thursday. So with TV as a babysitter (way to go, Mom!), I got my chance to finally make and photograph this Three Bean Turkey Chili for you all….

Red Lentil Barley Soup

December 30, 2014 By Karen

Holiday cards. The last few weeks brought a slew of them to our mailbox, which I always look forward to. I love hearing from friends near and far, seeing the photos, amazed at how the years have passed. I especially love the notes on them, and make the effort to write something personal on each one that we send out. I spend a ridiculous amount of time designing ours, writing a family update on the back, with the intention of giving the people in our lives an idea of what the past year looked like. It’s the version that I want people to see. “Hey everyone! Look at all we did! Go us!” And yes, I am honestly so proud of our accomplishments and want to share that, but I can’t say it’s the full picture of the year. First or all, I’m wearing makeup and I actually used a hair dryer and put on earrings (at least on the front of the card.) Those who see me daily know that rarely happens, even though I feel better about myself when I do such things. But mostly, it’s the end results that we share, and none of the process. And often, the process isn’t pretty.

It’s the piles of laundry that overflow from hampers, that when washed remain in the laundry basket for days and even weeks before getting folded, let alone returned to drawers. It’s the fight with the front door, that is warped and should be replaced, but instead is patched and painted, and then warps all over again with the weather and is impossible to close. It’s the fact that I am the messy one, and I drive Brian crazy with the clutter that I leave everywhere, despite my endless promises to try harder. It’s the battle over lies that come from a seven year old mouth, that might seem harmless but need to be nipped in the bud. It’s the refrain “I’m bored….” which is uttered in the 90 seconds between waking up and walking into my bedroom, that really means, “Mom, can I play Minecraft?” It’s the tears of frustration and exhaustion at the end of a 15 hour day in a foreign country, when I feel like a fraud and a failure as an interpreter because 30 deaf people in a room with as many different language needs talking about terrorism is just not something I can handle well at 10 o’clock at night. It’s months of health issues that had me sleeping in my car during lunch every day so that I could make it through the afternoon, and it’s lying on the couch binge-watching trash television (yes, I’ve seen four episodes of Scandal in the last two days) until way into the night, despite the need to wake at the crack of dawn. It’s burning the candle at every end, so that the wick has withered away, and my body gives out and I have to cancel work, which makes me feel even worse.

It’s the conversation that happens as I try to get out the door….

Honey Miso Chicken

November 14, 2014 By Karen

I haven’t cooked in six days. I haven’t made oatmeal, baked chocolate chip cookies, browned butter, or roasted a squash. I haven’t been able to go to my “happy place” because it’s been closed off. Literally, closed off and sealed up with plastic and painters tape. And it’s driving me crazy.

When we moved into our house eight years ago, we took one look at the kitchen and said, “Well, it has potential. We’ll simply knock down this wall, open it up to the dining room, move this here and that there and it will be perfect.” Ah, the naive new home owners…. I’m sure it’s taken you no time at all to figure out that those plans cost a fortune, and so we’ve still been living with our dated 1970’s dark faux wood cabinets, the ones with the chips in the laminate and the little accent buttons missing from half their holes. We did get rid of the pink and green rose wallpaper when we moved in, and have changed the paint color a couple of times, but the dark brown that covered most of the kitchen made it gloomy and a bit oppressive….

Sweet and Spicy Chili Shrimp

September 29, 2014 By Karen

Hangin’ in there.

Busy, but good. Trying to figure out the whole balance thing.

Those are the two standard answers I’ve been giving people lately when they ask, “How’re you doing?” And by lately, I mean the last eight years or so. (Yay! Parenthood!) Yeah, sometimes I want to say, “Do you really want to know?” But come on, that’s reserved for the close friends and family who already know I’m crazy. “Hangin’ in there” typically means I’m trying to remember that things aren’t that difficult and that I need to get some perspective on life, because really, I may feel exhausted or overwhelmed (mostly from my own doing, but that’s another story,) but I know I’ve got to get over myself. The second line is my more “upbeat response,” but even that gives away the fact that I don’t have it all under control. (Surprise!) So I’m working towards being at a place in my life where I spontaneously answer, “I’m great! How are you?” I’m getting there…I’m definitely closer than I have been in a long time, but it’s taking a conscious effort. It’s recognizing and being grateful for the little things, as well as the big ones. (The big ones are too many to list here right now, but being healthy is one at the top.) Little ones are more manageable: chocolate babka with a candle in it delivered bedside on my birthday. A rainy day that let me spend hours reading with my 7 year old. Hearing him cry, “It’s not fair!!!! Why does the library have to be closed on Sunday?!?!” Kids that finally sleep through the night. (Which is not such a little thing.) Watching my niece clap her hands and realize she can make a whole room laugh with her. Having a dance party before bedtime. Getting a card from a friend that says “Shitake Happens.” Being able to run two miles without stopping. (Again, not feeling little. Maybe even feeling a bit huge.) Getting a haircut. And color…because the grays…oh, the grays.
And this weekend I went on an adventure with my guys, even when the list of things to do at home was endless. We’ve lived in New Jersey for 8 years, but had never been to Grounds for Sculpture down in Trenton. An outdoor sculpture park, they’ve got an incredible exhibit going on that is a retrospective of the founder Seward Johnson’s work. It felt like a summer day, and we spent three hours traipsing around, amazed by what we saw, especially his life-like sculptures. If you live locally, choose a date and go. It’s really worth your time.

We pulled back into our neighborhood though at 4:30pm. Worn out and hungry, I knew that the fridge was pretty bare. Needing dinner and fixings for lunches, I braved a quick trip to Trader Joe’s. (Let me tell you, as much as I love grocery shopping, Sunday evenings are not fun there.) So even though it wasn’t a work day, I still had the mindset that I needed a fast and easy dinner, because nobody was going to wait patiently while I fussed in the kitchen. It’d been a while since I’d made this sweet and spicy chili shrimp dish, but I knew it took little effort and has a huge payoff in flavor. I grabbed a bag of frozen, pre-cooked shrimp that were already peeled and deveined, an extra knob of fresh ginger, and some limes. Twenty minutes after unpacking the groceries, we were sitting down to eat, that’s how simple this meal is. It’s a recipe that is only slightly adapted from one Mark Bittman wrote for the New York Times about street food in Singapore exactly nine years ago. I’ve been making it ever since, but I have adjusted the measurements for the sauce so that there is plenty of extra to spoon on top of the brown rice and broccoli I typically serve it with….

Turkey and Yellow Squash Burgers

September 17, 2014 By Karen

My boys are now 7 and 3, and they’re pretty good eaters. Actually, they’re kind of awesome, but it wasn’t always that way. The big one ate everything until he was 18 months, then boycotted vegetables for almost two years. I freaked out about it, worried that he was going to be deprived of all essential vitamins, and experimented with sneaking vegetables into his diet. (Zucchini muffins were the only place I had any success.) But sure enough, by the time he was four he just started eating the vegetables that we had been putting on his plate night after night, year after year. I was of the mindset that I would rather offer the food and toss it (yes, wasteful in some eyes,) than give in to the notion that this toddler had control over what I served. He ate what we ate. Period. Or at least he was served what we ate, because he certainly didn’t always eat it. But you know something? I now have a second grader who is a very expensive dinner date. When we go to restaurants he gets insulted when he’s offered the kids’ menu, because he’d rather have the mussels with fries than chicken fingers, or seared ahi tuna with wasabi wonton chips instead of mac and cheese. Truthfully, he can be a bit of a snob about it, and we have to remind him that the the kids’ menu is not just dumbed down food but portions that are sized appropriately for his appetite. But he’s proud of himself for being adventurous, and that’s pretty cool.

And then there’s my little guy, who was a big pain in the rear end for the first year and a half of his life. He was a preemie, so it wasn’t really his fault, but let me tell you that doesn’t make it any easier when you’re the parent. The short story is that he was six weeks early and hadn’t had a chance to cook long enough, and so he had a whole bunch of delays. He was exhausted all the time, because he couldn’t self-soothe. Which meant that until he was 14 months old he only slept in stretches that were 45-90 minutes, and then he would wake and need help going back to sleep. He was constantly cranky, and so was I. He also had sensory issues, and one way they manifested was in a difficulty with textures, specifically foods. So while he nursed and had his formula, he had zero interest in solids. He barely ate anything for a very long time, and took teeny to a whole new level. And when he finally did start eating, he was picky. And for a while I indulged it in ways I hadn’t with his brother. He also pulled the whole “no vegetable” thing for a couple of years. (Maybe I could get spinach and carrots into him if they were in fruit smoothies encased in refillable solid plastic squeeze pouches so he wouldn’t see the dreaded green color, but that was about it.) But after a while with early intervention, and simply more time left on his own to develop, he started sleeping regularly, and everything started to get better. We all began to feel human again, because sleep deprivation is an unbearable form of torture (as any new parent can tell you.) Then sure enough, one day he said, “Mom, can I have that carrot?” A real, crunchy, orange carrot. And he ate it. Because he saw us eating them, and because that’s what’s normal for our family. And now he’s 3 and a half, and he doesn’t get any special treatment when it comes to food. I think I’ve finally even convinced his grandparents that they can stop prepping pasta as a backup every time they bring over chicken curry, because he may scrunch up his face and say it’s spicy, but he just reaches for his water, takes a sip, and keeps on eating.

Now I don’t write this to brag, because I’ve had more than my share of food headaches and fails when it comes to my kids. And I don’t have any magic advice, except to just keep putting the food you want them to eat onto their plates. We don’t force them to eat everything, but we are very insistent that they take at least one bite. Because maybe they didn’t like peppers last week, but this week their tastes may have changed. And yes, we resort to bribing. I’m not proud, but it’s true. And if there’s parents out there who don’t, I want to meet you because I don’t know how you do it. We absolutely pull the “there won’t be dessert” card, or the “you’re done with dinner then” line, and there can be crying and fussing, then I worry that I’m causing horrible food issues down the road. But really, I think it’s worked. And I think a big part of that is because the food is mostly home cooked, so they recognize the work that’s gone into preparing it. And for that I have to give credit to Brian, because he always reminds them, “You need to thank Mommy for making this for us.” Oh, and when we’re at a restaurant the line of choice is, “If you’re not going to try that, do you want me to go tell the chef you don’t like it?” That seems to work too somehow.

Which all goes to say, I’m not really one for tricking kids into thinking there’s no vegetables in a dish. But I am all for including them in unexpected ways that may make them more appealing, or just no big deal. So when I was paging through the cookbook “Jerusalem,” by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamini, and I saw a turkey burger recipe with shredded zucchini stuffed into it I knew I had to make it. Turkey burgers are our go-to weeknight dinner, but even though they make everyone happy time and again, they can get boring. And since everything these guys write about makes my mouth water, these hit the top of my to-make list….

The Easiest Crockpot Ribs (and a Thank You)

August 20, 2014 By Karen

Since I officially announced Tasty Oasis on Monday with an email blast and a Facebook update, I have been overwhelmed by the response. Your messages and comments have been so kind and encouraging, and I am thrilled that so many of you have shared Tasty Oasis with your friends already. I can’t thank you enough! Creating a food blog has been something I’ve thought about for years. I think and read about food constantly. I have been collecting cookbooks for ages, and I go through them like novels, reading them from beginning to end and writing notes about what I’ll make one day. I’ve had magazine subscriptions on and off since I left college, and I have only recently tossed the towering stacks of ancient Gourmets, Bon Appetites, Cooking Lights, and Everyday Foods, saving precious recipes in binders instead. And the blogs. For the last many years I have read a ridiculous number of blogs daily. I started off with Smitten Kitchen back in her very early days, and the list just grew. With the ease of subscription services and feed readers, it’s like having my own set of food magazines every day, tailored to exactly my taste. Personally, I read everything on Feedly, and am always happy when one of my favorites has a new post up. It’s because of this hobby, or distraction, or whatever you may call it that that I decided I wanted to write my own blog. I know exactly what I like to read and see on a food blog, and now the challenge is to produce that on my own for all of you. I’m so excited to finally be doing it!

Moroccan Carrots, Garlic for a Miso Chicken, Turkey Chili and Everyday Granola Coming Soon!

Many of you wrote and asked who’s taking the photographs on Tasty Oasis. I am! It’s me! When I decided to start this project, I knew that I had to up my game and move on from my 8 year old point and shoot camera. In January I bought a Canon Rebel T3i, and have been playing with it constantly. Even though I’ve interpreted undergraduate photography classes over the years, I never really applied what I heard and always used to stick with the automatic settings. But I bought myself a food photography book, and pay close attention to other bloggers’ photography choices, and am experimenting every time I go to shoot something. The up-close macro shots seem to be working out, but if you saw the number of blurry kid photos I’ve taken you would have to laugh and wonder if it’s the same photographer! At the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens last week I experimented with flowers, and again, things that stay in one place seem to be where I have the most luck. I’m hoping with time I can actually get some good people shots though!

From the last couple of posts you have probably noticed that I use dried spices to flavor a lot of my cooking. There are a bunch of reasons, but the big ones are that they are easy, convenient and healthy. As a working mom, I often feel like I am running around with my time and brain split in 84 different directions. I am constantly looking for shortcuts, and tend to favor recipes that don’t have too many moving parts or specialty ingredients. Fresh herbs are fabulous, and you absolutely will see them frequently on Tasty Oasis, but they sadly die in my refrigerator over and over again. If I didn’t kill every plant I ever tried to grow (I know, watering would help, but that’s just another thing to remember to do), I would grow my own herbs and just snip what I needed, but I never seem to make it happen. So dried herbs and spices often come to the rescue. Plus, a spice rub means you can avoid making a heavy sauce, skipping the creams and coconut milk and the oils. Those all make things tasty, but don’t necessarily help for making a meal on the lighter side. That said, they have their place in my kitchen and when I use them I make sure to enjoy every bite.

One strategy I use to feed my family home cooked food is the crockpot. I can throw something together before leaving for work, and walk into a house that smells amazing. A lot of people think crockpot cooking is only for the winter for stews and soups, but summer is the perfect time to use the crockpot because you can avoid turning on the stove and heating up your kitchen. Living in a house that’s almost 100 years old without central air, that is brilliant. I’m such a fan of this contraption that I typically have two going on the counter at once so that I can double my recipes and freeze several extra meals at a time. This way I can have dinner ready with even less work later in the week or month. (I’ll be writing more posts about how to cook and freeze meals, so stay tuned!)…

Spice-Crusted Roasted Salmon

August 18, 2014 By Karen

Fish is one of those things that everyone says they want to make more often. I know I do. Healthy for you, fast to prepare and usually a hit, I always intend to cook it more frequently than I do. Truth be told, the reason is a matter of convenience and cost. I typically do my main grocery shopping once a week, and often at a place without a proper fish counter or one that leaves something to be desired. And when you factor in buying sustainable fish, you’re looking at wild caught varieties or the ethically farmed ones, and it can become expensive. So I fall back on tilapia most of the time, or defrost something frozen, but am always so happy when I throw fish into my kitchen rotation.

But I was on vacation last week in Maine, and seafood was a daily part of our eating. From lobster rolls, to fried clams, to haddock tacos, I was in heaven. We rented a cottage right on the water, with a tree house and plenty of rocks to climb on and tide pools to explore. Although I had a list a mile long of places to go, we ended up hanging out most of the time in this picture postcard setting.

A glass of wine at sunset in Maine, with a view of the water from our vacation cottage

With a view like this, I never wanted to leave Maine

And as luck would have it, there was an amazing deal on wild caught Alaskan Sockeye Salmon at the local market. As part of my arsenal I happened to pack a selection of spices, which worked out perfectly for this recipe which is a tried and true favorite. My sister-in-law started making a version of this years ago for family gatherings, and I’ve adapted it only slightly. As I wrote about recently, I toast and grind my own cumin and coriander for this recipe, which is such a simple step that coaxes out amazing flavor from something that can be stored in your pantry. (If this sounds like a deal breaker for you, I am all for using already ground spices so please don’t tune out!) I switch the paprika to smoked paprika, double the amount of spices, and keep it simple by just roasting the fish on its own….

Chipotle Turkey Meatballs

March 3, 2014 By Karen

FAST AND EASY CHIPOTLE TURKEY MEATBALLS

Dinner is often a scramble in my house. Most days I’m lucky enough that the kids are already home from school (thanks to their grandparents,) but at 5:30pm I rush through the door and head straight to the kitchen, barely saying hello and giving kisses. I drop my bags, and before I do anything else I put a pot of water on to boil and turn on the oven. Even if I haven’t planned what I’m going to cook, I do these two things just to get the process moving. Only then do I wash my hands and check in with everyone, asking if homework’s been done and how the day’s been. For our night to go smoothly, not only do I need to get our meal prepped, but our family dinner needs to be enjoyed and completed within an hour and fifteen minutes. It’s a tall order, and not always successful, but it certainly is the goal.

I have my standard kitchen fallbacks, the dishes I throw together without thinking and without a recipe, but they’re not exactly exciting. How many times can I possibly cook turkey burgers, or toss pasta with a quick turkey meat sauce? I love pulling a bag of something homemade out of the freezer and just reheating, but it’s not always an option. So I’m thrilled when I find a great recipe that’s fast and flavorful, pleases all four of us, and can even be doubled so I can freeze half for another night. Chipotle Turkey Meatballs fits the bill perfectly. It’s slightly adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks, “Mexican Everyday,” by Rick Bayless. It’s a book that uses easy to find ingredients, most recipes can be made in less than an hour, and for dishes that take longer he has crockpot cooking instructions so your meal can be waiting for you when you get home. I’ve made several dishes and every single one of them works. It’s a book you should have on your shelf….