Tuna Melt O' My Heart!

What is it about tuna melts?  They are so comforting and delicious, but I rarely make them. Maybe I just sort of forget about them, until I need something for dinner when I haven't planned anything else.  Tuna melts to the rescue! And please don't get on me about the dry mini-carrots. I told you, I didn't have much else, so we had to do with what we had. Deal, people.  My life is not picture perfect.  :-)

I don't usually have English muffins on hand, so that was really the only thing I had to buy specifically for this recipe. If you don't have actual English muffins, you could do this just on regular bread, too.  Same technique will work for both.

Surprisingly, even my picky eater ate two of these, so you might want to try it with your kids (they even at those dry carrots).  Make sure they wait a little for the cheese to cool, otherwise they might burn the tops of their mouths.  Happens to me almost every time!  :-)

For a non-dairy variation, I broiled one without cheese, then added sliced avocado after I took them out of the oven.  It was delicious, and I didn't miss the cheese (much) at all!

And, in case you don't have either of these tools, you really need to get them if you like to eat tuna salad.  The Pampered Chef can opener and can strainer are fabulous!!

Tuna Melts, My Way


2 cans white albacore tuna, packed in water, drained
two big spoonfuls of mayonnaise (approx. 1/3 cup)
1 stalk celery, small (1/4 inch) dice
2 green onions, chopped fine
1 heaping Tbsp sweet relish, or about 5-6 sweet midget gherkins, diced small
a squirt of fresh lemon juice
Salt, pepper (to taste)
3 English muffins, split
butter
6 slices of cheese (I use American because it melts smoother)

Combine the first 6 ingredients in a bowl (or you can just use your own favorite tuna salad recipe). Stir together to completely incorporate (you might have to smash through some of the larger chunks of tuna).

Turn on broiler.  Place English muffins on a rimmed baking sheet.  Butter lightly (you can skip this part and just toast them dry if you want).  Toast muffins under broiler (pan should be about 4-6 inches away from the heat), about 1-2 minutes.  You just want a little color on them so the middle doesn't get too soggy when you put the tuna on it.  Pull the muffins out of the oven.

Top the muffins with the tuna salad, then top with slices of cheese. I cut the squares down a little smaller, because I don't like having the cheese melt over the sides, dripping down and then burning on my pan, but that's just my Type-A quirkiness shining through.

Put the tuna melts back under the broiler for about 2 minutes, but keep an eye on them. You don't want the cheese to burn, just melt (hence the name of the dish).  :-) When the cheese starts to brown and bubble, pull the tuna melts out and serve.

Fall Wreath Craft

Don't hate me. I don't control the hands of time, but the inevitable march towards Fall is upon us, so I thought I'd share a wreath I made last year.  Of course, I didn't actually make it until October, so it was kind of late to post back then, so here it is, almost Fall again and my timing is now better for those of you who are actually thinking of decorating for the next season already.  I am not usually one of them.  ;-)

This was pretty easy to make, considering I usually am a crafting failure.  How can you tell I'm not a crafter? Instead of going to the store with a plan, I re-used a couple of fake leaf "bouquets" that I was tired of, paints that I inherited from someone else ("Sure, I guess I'll figure out a use for them...") and ribbon that I bought a long time ago (like 6 years) only because it was on sale and, "You never know when you'll need some ribbon." Luckily all the colors matched fairly well, otherwise this would have been a disaster...Confession: I actually had to go out and buy the letter and the styrofoam.

 You will need:

a styrofoam form for the wreath

cardboard for the back 

a wooden letter

a length of wide ribbon

a shitload of fake Fall leaves

paint

brush

tacky spray (to adhere the cardboard to the wreath form

staple gun 

First, paint the letter in the color you desire. I can't tell you exactly what colors I used, because they were from a bunch of paints someone gave me a while ago.  I kind of did a double coat, blending two different paint colors.  Turned out that it almost exactly matched that ribbon I bought a while back.

While the letter dries, prep the styrofoam form.  Attach cardboard to the back of the styrofoam using the tacky spray.  Mine looks a little trashy because I used parts of some cardboard decorations (cowboy boots, to be exact) that had been hanging up on the back porch for a couple of years. It was time to "repurpose" them, don't you think?  ;-)

Not a big deal, because you really don't see that part.  I used masking tape to hold the cardboard down until the tacky spray had dried.

Turn the form over and start attaching leaves. I had to experiment at first to get the leaves to stay on. The tacky spray didn't work, so I ended up putting glue on the ends of the leaf stems (first trimming the stems to a pointy end if necessary), then sticking the stems into the styrofoam.  I started at the bottom, using a miniature pumpkin to camouflage the point where the first leaves overlapped, then worked my way around each side until the wreath was completely covered.

 Next, take your painted wooden letter (make sure it's completely dry) and the wide ribbon.  The length of the ribbon you use will depend on how low you want the letter to hang in the middle and how long you want the ribbon hanging from the top. I used about 18 inches for the long piece, then 6 inches for the shorter piece.  Take the longer piece of ribbon and staple one end to the back of the letter.  Lay the letter in the middle of the wreath to place it where you want it to hang.  Then make a big loop so that the other end of the ribbon goes over the top of the wreath, then back down underneath the wreath. The ribbon should be laying flat.  Staple the other end of the ribbon to the back of the styrofoam and cardboard backing.  To make the loop on top from which to hang the wreath, take your second, shorter piece of ribbon and tie it around the longer piece of ribbon, just above the top of the wreath, to form the closed loop. You will have to tuck the front part of the ribbon underneath the leaves to they hide it.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of the ribbon-attaching process.  I was in full crafter mode and forgot to take any more until the thing was done.  Here's the finished product:

Happy Fall, y'all!

My Favorite Summertime Dinner

MUSSELS!!

I don't know when I started to love mussels, but it's my favorite meal in the summer. Some might be intimidated to make them, but mussels are a super easy, quick dinner to make.  The most labor-intensive part is the cleaning process, but it's not hard.

The key to preparing mussels (as with all seafood, really) is to make sure they're fresh. Now, I don't know how fresh they can be, getting PEI mussels in northern Virginia, but I've had pretty good luck at our local Wegman's.  In a 2-lb. bag of mussels, nearly all are good (I think I had to throw out 6 or 7).

Plus, this dinner doesn't require a whole lot of ingredients, most of which I usually have on hand (why, yes, of COURSE I have an open bottle of white wine...).

Here's what you need:

2 lbs mussels (for 4 people)
one shallot, chopped fine (you can add or substitute 2 cloves of garlic if you want)
approx 1/4 cup white wine (two good glugs)
1/4 cup water
a handful of fresh thyme
approx. 2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley (flat leaf or curly, whatever you've got)
Salt and pepper (optional)
a squeeze of fresh lemon (optional)

This picture doesn't show the thyme, because I hadn't run outside to get some, yet, so...Sorry.

Anyway, while my pan heated up, I cleaned the mussels.  The ones I buy are actually pretty clean. All you really need to do is pull out the beard, if they have them, but you might also want to scrub the outside with a soft brush to get any sand/dirt that might be stuck on the shell.  Also, sometimes I'll use the flat part of a paring knife to help me leverage the beard out (trapping the beard between my right thumb and knife blade), because they can be really tough to pull out. This is what the beard will look like:

If any of your mussels are open when you clean them, and they don't shut if you gently squeeze them, then throw them out.  You do NOT want to eat that.  On the other hand, you also don't want to eat any mussels that don't open once you've steamed them. Food for thought, that.

Anyway, here's an example of what you need to throw out during the cleaning process.

Sorry for the picture quality. My little point-and-shoot can be a little ornery sometimes, and it wouldn't focus on the stupid shell I had in my hand...but I digress.

Once you've cleaned your mussels, set them aside for the moment and turn your attention to the pan heating on the stove.  Add 2 Tbsp of butter and your chopped up shallots.  Let those cook a bit until the shallots are soft (about 3 minutes).  Add water, wine, and thyme and let that bubble up, then turn down to a simmer (surface of the liquid should ripple but not have lots of bubbles).

Dump all the mussels into the pan, then cover with a tight-fitting lid.  Let the mussels steam for approximately 8 minutes.

You might want to stir them around about 4 minutes in, just to get the mussels that were on top down to the bottom and into the cooking liquid for a couple of minutes).  After 8 minutes, check to see if the mussels have opened up.  If most of them are open (remember, don't eat mussels that haven't opened after they've been steamed), take the mussels off the heat.  Sprinkle with parsley, add salt and pepper to taste, if you like (I think the mussels add their own sea-saltiness, so we didn't add any) and a squirt of lemon if you can't have seafood without lemon.  We forgot to add it and I prefer that hit of acid, but my husband said he thought it tasted great without it. :-)

Be sure to serve the mussels with plenty of bread (I prefer a baguette) to sop up the tasty cooking liquid.  That's my favorite part.  I also served them with a side of a simple chopped vegetable salad (green pepper, tomato, cucumber, parsley drizzled with olive oil and a little salt and pepper), but traditionally, mussels are served with french fries (moules-frites).

Baby, it's hot outside!

I live in Virginia, where the summers are hot and humid.  Both of those conditions were in full force this week, which made me not want to use the stove AT ALL.  Actually, I didn't do much of anything, because the heat just drains all the energy out of me.  It doesn't matter that I spent much of the time either in my air-conditioned home or my air-conditioned car. Oh no.  It is still an excuse, because I had to take one son to his swim practice every morning and swelter on the pool deck, and take my other son to his week-long camp, so the car sits out just long enough to get oven-baking hot, yet the A/C doesn't really cool things down before we're home.

Yes, yes. I know you're saying, "Boo hoo, whine, whine. What does this have to do with food?" Whatever, peeps.  My blog, my whining. But I promise to get to the food.

My kids love it when we do a smorgasbord of random things that they get to put together themselves and call it a meal.  Cheese, crackers, lunch meats, veggies, dips and fruit.  Or whatever. This week, I did a little more prep than I usually do for something like this, and I did actually turn on the stove (and oven). These recipes are not my own, but they were delicious, so I'll provide the links for you to try them as well.

I had been thinking about chilled soups which, generally, are not my favorites (gazpacho tastes like I'm eating runny salsa, IMHO), but I do like vichyssoise (potato and leek soup).  Surprisingly, none of my cookbooks actually had a vichyssoise recipe, but I did have one that had a recipe for "Potage Parmentier", which had leeks and potato and cream in it, so I figured it had to be pretty much the same thing. [And yes, I realize I could have just looked up a recipe online, but I was stubborn enough to think I had to have an acceptable recipe in my cookbook collection]  Williams-Sonoma's blog recently provided a long list of chilled soups that I am eager to try out.

The rest of the meal consisted of White BeanTapenade and Marinated Summer Vegetables, both from the June 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine, antipasto peppers, a cured Italian sausage, some deli meats and cheeses, mustards, sweet gherkins, cherry tomatoes and mozzarella balls (perline) and a variety of crackers.

Here's what the spread looked like:

I apologize that I didn't get a good shot of the soup.  I took the picture after the boys started eating. :-)

Now, as I mentioned before, I did have to actually turn on the stove to make the soup and the oven to cook the veggies for the marinated salad, so if you're really sweltering, this particular line-up won't help you.  BUT: I did both in the morning before it got really hot and I got too tired to do anything but make sandwiches.  You could also grill the veggies, so at least you're not heating up the house, or if you are grilling a meal earlier in the week, you could grill up extra vegetables to use for the salad later.  Lots of possibilities there. There's also the option of just buying a variety of salads, dips, spreads, meats and cheeses from the prepared food section of the grocery store and setting it out for everyone to taste.  I get that it's hot, people are tired and cranky and food needs to get on the table. I'm not judging.

For the marinated vegetables, I used a lemon olive oil, which gave it a nice citrus punch. If you don't happen to have that, you could add a little lemon zest instead (or leave it out -- the original recipe doesn't call for any sort of lemon).  I also didn't have oregano, so I used fresh thyme (I have a nice patch growing just outside my back door). You know me; I make do with what I've got, and I hope it gives you ideas how you can play with your food, too.

What are your favorite meals to fix when it's too hot to cook?

Here's the recipe I used for our chilled soup:

Potage Parmentier

Adapted from Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells (I highly recommend this book for delicious, yet simple, French bistro basic recipes)

3 large potatoes (I used Russet), peeled and quartered

2 leeks, just the white and pale green parts, sliced

1 quart of water

1 cup beef stock (you could also use chicken stock, but beef is what I had)

3/4 cup heavy cream

Salt and pepper, to taste

3 tablespoons chopped chives, for garnish (optional) - the original recipe suggested chervil or tarragon

Combine the potatoes, leeks, water and broth in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to simmer and cook until vegetables are meltingly soft, 35-40 minutes.

Using an immersion blender, blend vegetables in the pot until smooth. Add cream and heat through.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  If you don't have an immersion blender, you can use a regular blender, in batches (be sure to keep the small hope at the top of your blender cover open to let heat escape) or a food mill. 

Serve either warm or cold (it's delicious either way), garnished with fresh herbs, if you like. Note: It took a while for the soup to chill (about 4 hours in the fridge, and it still was more lukewarm than chilly), so be sure to factor that in, time-wise.

Serves 6 to 8

Tip: To get all the sand out of leeks, I fill my sink with water, then put the leeks, already sliced into rings, in the water.  I then separate all of the rings, swishing them around and then letting the sand fall to the bottom of the sink. Then I scoop up the leeks either with my hands or a medium-mesh (not fine) sieve.

Another PINTESTER Challenge

So again, Sonja Foust, the intrepid Pintester, has issued a call to other bloggers.  This time, she's invited us to try out one of her previously-tested pins.  I had, like, 3 weeks to figure out what I was going to do, but here I am, scrambling because I haven't figured out what I wanted to do.  Here were my two criteria: 1) It had to be on the first page of one of her categories, because I don't have time for messing around with the "back" and "refresh" buttons; and 2) I had to have the ingredients or supplies at home (or at least close substitutions), because it's hot out and I don't want to leave the house.

Given those criteria, I picked her Apple Cinnamon Slow Cooker Pork.  Here's the original pin/recipe. And here is the Pintester version. True to the Pintester tradition, I did not have exactly the right ingredients, and I was a little leery of trying it because it didn't taste that great, but what the heck, here's to livin' on the edge.  Am I right? Plus, slow cooking in the summer is awesome, because you have a hot meal, but didn't heat up the kitchen.  Win, win. I'm all for salads and sandwiches in the summer to keep things cool, but sometimes you need a hot meal for it to feel like an actual dinner.

I kinda screwed my husband (make your own joke, here), 'cause I used the last two (expensive) apples on this recipe, which he usually takes an apple with his lunch each day. It calls for 3, but, whatever.  Those expensive apples ($2.99/lb for freak's sake) better be delicious, 'cause I'm already mad at myself for buying those stupid thing. I also didn't have honey, but I had maple syrup, which is actually better, IMHO.  Plus, since there was a little issue with flavor, the maple will boost that, hopefully.  Plus I added salt.  Salt boosts flavor, people.  Remember that. With the pork, apple, maple flavors going on, it's more of a fall-ish feel, so that's going to be strange, seasonally speaking, but we'll survive.

The other thing I like about this recipe is that you just dump everything in (ingredients prep aside).  No browning of the meat beforehand or any of that nonsense (side rant: what's up with that, anyway?  Browning meat before you put it in a crock pot is stupid and totally defeats the convenience of the crock pot in the first place.  If I wanted to actually use the stove, I'd just braise the fucker). Unfortunately, my crock pot is round, rather than oblong, so when I put the pork in it, I had to sort of coil it around.  It means it doesn't look quite like either of the other two tries.  Just keep that in mind when you look at my crappy and completely unappetizing picture.  :-)

It also uses a boatload of cinnamon. Two tablespoons is crazy, but I did it.  If this thing turns out well, I'm sending my version over to Penzey's, because that's the brand of cinnamon I used. If you are not already acquainted with that store, I beg you, for all that is good and tasty, to get there and order your spices.  They rock, and it really does make a difference. But then again, I'll probably have to make the recipe again and actually measure everything out...

Anyway, so here's my version (amounts are approximate, because, well, I don't have time for actual measuring and stuff, plus it's just more I have to clean up):

Slow Cooker Maple Pork Tenderloin with Apples and Onions:

3 lb. pork tenderloin
2 onions, sliced in 1/4 inch slices
2 apples (they do not need to be the expensive, fancy Koru apples I had, but something more flavorful than Red Delicious, if you have access to it), cored and sliced into approximately 1/2-inch slices
1/4 cup pure maple syrup (I used Grade B)
2 Tablespoons (yes, Tablespoons) of cinnamon
Salt

Put the onions in the bottom of the crock pot.  Sprinkle with a little salt.  Make slices in the tenderloin -- do not cut all the way through.  Layer the pork in the crock pot, then put an apple slice in each of the slices you made in the pork.  Put any extra slices on top of the meat.  Sprinkle a little more salt over the meat, then sprinkle the cinnamon over everything.

Turn on low and cook about 7 hours until tender.

Results:

The pork turned out really well!  For a less sweet taste, you might want to knock the maple syrup back to 2 - 2 1/2 tablespoons.  The meat was really tender, too tender to actually slice, because it just fell apart when I tried to pull it out of the crock pot, thus the not-so-appetizing "after" picture.  Also, the apples got really mushy, so they didn't have nice-looking slices by the time I took everything out of the pot.  If I made it again, I might try it with Granny Smith apples that might hold its shape more (and be less sweet).  In my final version picture, I served it with polenta, but in the fall or winter, it would taste really good with mashed potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts (nice call, Sonja).  :-)

So, to re-cap, here's the original pin:

Here's the Pintester version:

And here's my attempt:

Brussels Sprouts Slaw with Maple Mustard Dressing (and lessons learned...again!)

Sometimes, in the interest of saving time, you end up not saving much time at all in the end.  Case in point: I saw shaved Brussels sprouts at the grocery store the other day and thought, "I hate shaving those darn things!  This will save me so much time and effort!" Friends, I was wrong.  Here's why.

I bought those pre-shredded things at the store, thinking they would be good for an easy slaw as a side dish with salmon.  When I tasted them before I got started making the slaw, they were really bitter (who knows how long they've been sitting in transit and such before they got to the store shelf?). So, to make them a little less bitter and bring out some sweetness, I ended up roasting them for a few minutes. I also added some carrots to offset the bitterness some more.  While the final product was still really tasty, the lesson to be learned here is to use the freshest ingredients you can.  Sometimes it takes a few missteps (mistakes??) to set us back on the right path...

Brussels Sprouts Slaw with Maple Mustard Dressing

1 package (14 oz) shaved Brussels sprouts
2/3 cup julienned carrots
olive oil, salt, pepper
1/2 cup Maple Mustard Dressing

Preheat oven to 425 degrees (F).  Toss sprouts and carrots with a little olive oil to coat, and salt and pepper.  I did this in a bowl, but if you're careful, you could do it directly on the baking pan you'll be using.  NOTE: If you are using fresh Brussels sprouts (like, from the garden or farmer's market), you can skip the whole roasting step and use them raw.

Put the prepared veggies on a large baking sheet and spread them out to an even layer.  Roast in the oven for just a few minutes -- about 10.  After the first 5 minutes, stir the veggies around a little.  The roasting will bring out a little more of the sweetness and decrease any bitterness the sprouts might have.

Pull the veggies out of the oven and let cool for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a large bowl.  While still a little warm, toss with about half of the dressing (1/4 cup) and let the veggies soak up some of the flavors of the dressing.  Once cooled to room temperature, you may add more dressing, to your taste.  This dish can be served at room temp or cold.

Serves 4

I Scream, You Scream...

Sorry for the long time in between posts.  It's been a busy time, with the end of school, start of swim team and a 6-day trip to California's Sonoma County thrown in there.  But I'm back, and I thought I'd give you a fun, summery treat to make:  brownie ice cream sandwiches.

These are not hard, but they do take some time, as I unfortunately found out.  The day after we came back from California, we were getting together with friends to celebrate one of our birthdays, and I had volunteered dessert.  We had nearly nothing in the fridge (or pantry), but I thought I had a box brownie mix (don't judge), at least, and eggs to make the brownie part of the sandwiches before I had to run the boys out to the dentist.  In retrospect, I really did not plan any of this well. It turns out that I didn't have brownie mix in the house, so I had to do a quick brownie from scratch (don't laugh, it's possible, and I'll show you how). It made us a couple (literally two) minutes late for the dentist, but it was okay. Then I had to stop at the grocery store to get ice cream. Why not just get a brownie mix then, you might ask (and I might call you a smart ass)? Because the brownies needed to not only bake, but also cool completely before you can spread the ice cream on them. So there.

I apologize for the picture quality of the final product.  For some reason, my camera refused to focus on the brownie.  After taking, like, 15 pictures I just gave up.  Sorry. This was the best I could do.

The bad part was that the ice cream didn't harden up in time for the birthday celebration, so we ended up not eating them.  It's okay, though, 'cause I'm planning a taco party later this week, so we can serve them as dessert then.  See? It all works out in the end...

Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches

Brownie layer:

This is a simple, one-bowl (one-saucepan, actually) brownie. If you have all the ingredients, it should only take about 10 minutes to throw together. Honest!

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)
8 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees (F). Prepare two rimmed baking sheets (10 inches by 14 inches).  DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP! Grease (I used Crisco, but you can use butter or other type of shortening) the inside of the pan, then line with parchment paper (or waxed paper if you don't have parchment). Grease the parchment paper.  Sprinkle with unsweetened cocoa, then tap the pans until they are coated with cocoa. Like this:

 TIP: if you're pressed for time, melt the butter and cocoa first, then while it cools, prepare the pans. Melt butter and cocoa in a 3 quart saucepan over low heat.  Stir until combined, then allow to cool (5 minutes or so).  Add sugar and vanilla, stir to combine thoroughly, then add one egg at a time, stirring after each egg to incorporate completely before adding another.  Add flour and salt, mix together until the flour is completely incorporated (you shouldn't see any white).  :-)

Evenly divide the batter between the two pans. I am horrible at this, so I used a measuring cup to help get the batter sort of equal.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until firm to the touch but not crispy or dark brown on the edges.  Pull pans out of the oven and let cool completely.

If you use a brownie mix, don't use the family-sized box of brownies.  Just get the kind that makes an 8x8 or 9x9 inch pan.

Sandwich Assembly:

Allow 1.5 quarts of vanilla ice cream to soften.  If you have the time, you could let it soften in the fridge for a couple of hours, which would probably be preferable, but I had a deadline looming, so I didn't have time to do it the "right" way.  I let my container sit on the counter for about 20 minutes.  When the middle still wasn't soft enough, I plopped it in a large bowl and just started stirring.  That helped a little.

Once the ice cream is soft (but not too melty), spread it evenly over one of the pans of brownie. Run a knife around the edge of the other brownie pan, then turn it over on top of the ice cream-covered brownie.  Pull off the pan and the parchment paper, then cover completely with plastic wrap and return to the freezer and freeze until ice cream is firm.  This took a lot longer than I thought, so you want to allow at least 4 hours for this.

















After the ice cream has hardened, remove from freezer.  Remove plastic wrap. Run a knife that you ran under hot water along the edges of the brownies (a warm knife will cut through the frozen brownie and ice cream easier and cleaner), place a cutting board (larger than the brownie pan) on top of the brownies, then flip the whole thing over so that the pan is now on top.  Lift off the pan and the parchment paper.

If you want the sandwiches to look really nice and even, you could trim off the sides (keep those trimmings, put them in a bowl and snack on them while you're finishing up...just a suggestion.  Don't want things to go to waste).  TIP: I use a pizza cutter to slice through the brownies. Cut bars into desired size (I got about 16). Wrap in squares of parchment paper and store in the freezer if you're not serving them right away.

Final thoughts:

You can customize these in so many ways.  I chopped up chocolate chips and toasted almonds and rolled the edges in them.  I also thought of spread raspberry sauce (you can see it in the picture) on one side of the brownie before I put it on top of the ice cream. I didn't do that this time, because a) I thought of it too late, and b) I was making these for kids and wasn't sure if they would eat them that way.  You also could use a different ice cream or cover in a ganache and freeze for a chocolate-covered brownie ice cream sandwich.  So decadent!