Jenyfer Matthews

I’m guest blogging at Killer Fiction today, reminiscing about my own childhood family vacations. Stop by and keep me company – and tell me about your family vacations.

And don’t forget that tomorrow, July 31st, is the last day to take advantage of the sale on my latest release SEPARATION ANXIETY, available at Smashwords.com. For those of you holding out for a paperback, good news! The trade paperback will be available for sale very soon at Amazon.

I also thought I’d share the new recipe I tried for July: Beer Margaritas. Talk about easy and tasty – and very refreshing on a hot summer afternoon.

Beer Margaritas

2 – 12 ounce cans of beer (I used Corona)
1 – 12 ounce can of frozen limeade concentrate
12 ounces of tequila

Pour into a pitcher and mix well. Serve over crushed ice and consume with friends.

ETA: SEPARATION ANXIETY is now available in paperback on Amazon!

Have a great weekend!

Editing always makes other jobs seem so much more interesting and imperative. This week it seemed like a good idea to catch up on my recipe resolution.

The first recipe I tried was for baked falafel. I love falafel, but I don’t like to deep fry things – if nothing else, it’s messy. I’ve tried to make it up myself and bake it but never have gotten the mix quite right. So, I finally looked for and found this recipe.

The only thing I did differently was to skip the fresh cilantro and use only parsley – not because I don’t like cilantro, but because I didn’t happen to have any, but I did have a lot of parsley. I also skipped the hot sauce because I didn’t think the children would enjoy it. I was encouraged when I made up the batter – it was moist but not drippy. I scooped it out and put the majority in my cast iron skillet and the overflow on a cookie sheet.

The patties on the cookie sheet actually cooked much better – I suppose because the cookie sheet heated up so much more quickly. I ended up pan frying the ones in the skillet just to crisp them up a bit at the end. Next time I’ll just use a cookie sheet for all. And there will be a next time – these were great and everyone enjoyed them so much I didn’t have any leftovers.

Many of my recipe ideas come from some item hanging around in my kitchen. The parsley inspired the falafel patties. The aging strawberries and leftover spray whipped cream from my daughter’s party inspired me to try my hand at strawberry shortcake.

I’ve only ever had strawberry shortcake on top of sponge / angel food cake and I have to say that served that way, it doesn’t tempt me much. Make a fresh shortbread base for it though and oh-my-goodness-is-it-good. Seriously yummy.

I am also pleased to say that I’m making my way through the final edits for Separation Anxiety bit by bit. Once those are complete, I only need to format it and get it uploaded (hopefully by the end of the month).

ETA: I bought a pastry cutter last summer and finally got to use it when making the shortbread recipe. It’s much easier to clean than my food processor, but I’m not sure that benefit outweighs the speed and efficiency with which my food processor would blend in the butter! Also, I’m already making plans for alternate toppings for the shortbread – like raspberry sauce, plums, peaches, etc. Hard to go wrong with just about any berry or fresh fruit. Kind of like a reverse cobbler!

I’m disappointed because I have fallen behind with my new-recipe-a-month resolution. How hard can it be to do ONE new recipe a month after all? I deliberately set my goal low because I knew one a week was never going to happen, but if I can’t do one a month that’s just sad.

I don’t think this counts, but this week I made something up out of my head. I had some frozen fish fillets in my freezer and I decided to adapt a recipe I’d looked at that called for shrimp. I sauteed an onion and garlic in olive oil, then threw in some chopped tomato, frozen chopped spinach, the remainder of a jar of pizza sauce, oregano, and basil. Once that was cooked, I added the thawed fish and let it cook for a few minutes before I mixed in some crumbled feta and put it in the oven just to warm it all through.

I wish I could say that the result was great, but it was merely meh. It did not have nearly as much flavor as I would have liked. I would have loved to have included some black olives, but you can’t get the sort of black olives I wanted here and I decided against the splash of balsamic vinegar because I was worried it might get too tart. At the end of the day, I probably should have just used shrimp!

So you tell me, does that count as a new recipe since it was 1) not really a recipe and 2) not a huge success?

I have found a few new recipes that looks like they would be very nice: one for baked falafel and a couple more summer salads that include shrimp. I hope to try both in the next couple of weeks, before I leave on vacation. I can pretty much already admit that I do very little cooking while traveling so even if I catch up to my resolution this month, I’ll be behind again by August. Oh well.

That’s why it’s better just to call it a “goal” rather than a “resolution”.

A while back my husband decided to get us a 15″ cast iron skillet because he was suspicious of nonstick coatings – both fumes and also when they start to peel. I admit that I was somewhat reluctant to use the new pan for quite a while. I was used to the pans that I had been using and didn’t think we really needed such a large pan so it sat on a shelf collecting dust.

Since we moved to our new house, I’ve fallen totally in love with the pan. Why? It all started with French toast. I hadn’t had any French toast (eggy bread for my British/Aussie readers) in a very long time, mostly because I didn’t have a pan where it wouldn’t either stick terribly (aluminum skillet) or fail to brown properly (nonstick). The French toast did not stick to the cast iron pan, it browned perfectly, AND it’s large enough that I was able to make three pieces at a time. Hmmm…

Since then I’ve used it to make grilled cheese sandwiches, veggie burgers, quesadillas, fried potatoes, oven-baked sweet potato fries, sautee onions, and pancakes. Yes, it’s large and it’s heavy, but I know it’s not giving off any noxious fumes when I heat it up and you just have to love a pan that you are actively discouraged from washing! I just wipe out whatever bits are left behind, oil it up and it’s ready to go the next time. I’ve been using it so frequently that it now lives on my stovetop.

I used it the morning of my trip to make my new-to-me recipe for March: oat cakes. (Ha! I didn’t have to rely on the brownies after all!) I’ve tried making oat cakes before but they were always denser than I liked. I found this recipe on Mama Pea’s blog and since she used to run a restaurant I figured she ought to know what she’s doing. She does indeed – they were wonderful.

My next adventure with cast iron will involve seasoning the cast iron waffle maker I bought recently. I’ll be able to make waffles on my stovetop OR in the woods! An added bonus is that it is small enough to also serve as a weapon

How many pots does it take to make soup for dinner? When you make it like I did the other night, apparently four!

Pot #1 – I started out making spiced dal (Indian lentil stew) – a recipe I’ve made countless times. Only this time – yikes! – I added way too much salt.

Pot #2 – I put more lentils in a second pot to cook without any seasoning, figuring I could add these to the first pot when they were done, with the hope that it would be enough to balance things out.

Pot #3 – Pot #1 was too small to accommodate the lentils from pot #2. Added everything to the pot #3 and find it is still pretty salty. Needs something…

Pot #4 – larger pot still to accommodate lentils, can of diced tomatoes, frozen chopped spinach, and several more cups of water. Voila! Indian lentil soup

(Pots #5 & #6 were for the basmati rice and the side of asparagus)

All in all, way too many pots for what ended up being a fairly simple dinner!! But I was happy to have salvaged the meal – and there’s enough leftover that we can eat it again later in the week. Gotta love a twofer.

Still, I don’t think that such a mad scramble should count as my new-to-me March recipe. I wasn’t going to count the brownie recipe I made at the beginning of the month either, but with March quickly passing and the fact that I’ll be traveling for the last two weeks of the month, brownies it is!

I make cakes from scratch all the time with good results, but hadn’t found a satisfying brownie recipe til now. Normally I rely on a mix, but I had friends coming over and had forgotten to buy a mix and it was raining so I took a chance. I chose this recipe because it didn’t require me to melt any chocolate, instead relying on powdered cocoa – which I happen to have in great supply. The only thing I did differently was add mint chocolate chips as a top crust – in a word, YUM. I may never buy a brownie mix again.

If I make brownies again this week, it can count as my March recipe, right?

I am happy to report that the only thing injured in the process of reducing the port bottle down to pretty green glass dust were several plastic bags and my rolling pin. Even several layers of thick plastic bags are not enough to protect a wooden rolling pin from shards of glass. (The top edge of my hammer was much more effective) On one hand, I don’t use the rolling pin that much. On the other hand, I guess I’ll have to get a new one since it’s newly gauged surface won’t work as well on dough (darn it!) – unless scar-faced gingerbread men are acceptable!

I just hope that in the end, my pottery projects come out as I envision.

On another topic, housing is provided with my husband’s job and a while back we requested to be moved to a larger apartment. I’ve loved the one we are currently in for the nearly four years we lived here, however we’ve outgrown the space and the children really need their own rooms. The housing department called us on Thursday to say they had a place for us and could we move on Tuesday? My initial reaction was um…no! I’ve gotten pretty good at moving, but I’m not THAT good! The movers I called yesterday for a quote on moving our large furniture items gave me such a good quote on moving everything that I decided in the interest of my stress levels and the remaining disks in my back to let them! They also suggested they could move us on Tuesday and since they are also responsible for the packing, Tuesday it is! Fortunately, our new place is only a few blocks away so things don’t have to be packed quite as carefully as they would if we were moving countries, but it’s still a big job.

Bigger still will be the job of cleaning / sorting / unpacking on the other end!

I also wanted to report that I did try a new recipe over the weekend (February – check!) I made shrimp chowder, using a fish chowder recipe from my Jane Brody cookbook. The only things I changed were I substituted shrimp for fish, I omitted the white wine, and I added a can of corn. It was amusing how much the frozen “cooking shrimp” I bought shrunk in the process though – in the end they were so small they could have been sea monkeys! The chowder was a hit – very tasty – and I’ll definitely be making it again.

I suspect the rest of this week we’ll be eating sandwiches and pizza however!

I rarely make resolutions – why bother? I know I’ll never keep them and most of the vices I have I don’t really mind!

But when everyone else starts talking about what they are going to do, my own wheels start to turn. And it’s not as if there isn’t room for improvement in my life. So here goes – my goal for the new year is to try at least one new recipe a month. I’m posting it here to keep me honest

Doesn’t sound like much, I admit but I’m kind of excited all the same. Since I’m the one at home, I’m responsible for the bulk of meal preparation in our home. And when our schedule gets busy I admit that I get into menu ruts. I thought about one new recipe a week but that seemed like a goal doomed to fail early. A month seems totally doable – and if I get really inspired there’s nothing to stop me from trying new recipes more often.

I’m happy to say that I already tried January’s recipe this week: Lentil Walnut Burgers, from The New Moosewood Cookbook. It probably doesn’t sound all that appealing to the non-vegetarians out there, but it appealed to me on several levels. I had all the ingredients, the instructions didn’t look too daunting, and both walnuts and flaxseed are things that my husband has been trying to work into his diet to deal with high triglyceride levels.

I normally follow the instructions on a recipe the first go round before I start to mess with it, unless it says something silly like the garlic is optional. (garlic = yum) These burgers were very good – they had a nice texture and flavor and everyone in the family enjoyed them, even my son who isn’t the most adventurous eater. The only thing I might do differently next time is add a bit more salt, but that’s just me. Also, I’d take the time to cut up a fresh tomato.

Overall rating: definitely will make this one again!

My inlaws are in town this weekend for a quick visit before going on to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and I will be spending a lot of time in the kitchen showing off my skills as the hostess with the mostest. I’ll be cooking for five adults and two small children (with adult appetites). I have several meals in mind, including Hearty Potato Soup (aka as “soup with nothing in it” by my son since it is pureed) with asparagus and beer bread followed by strawberry pie for dessert, vegetable lasagna with garlic bread and salad followed by chocolate cake, and vegetarian chili with corn bread followed by cheesecake for dessert.

(Never do I regret not having a dishwasher more than when I have dinner guests!)

It’s not totally altruism that is inspiring me to go all out – it’s also timing. Next weekend I leave on my trip to Thailand so I’ll be away when my inlaws come back through on their way home. Feeding them well now will ensure that I will truly be missed by all the week I’m away.

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

The children go back to school on Sunday (fingers crossed we’ll have no more flu-closure nonsense). The holidays passed much more quickly and peacefully than I expected, but does it make me a Bad Mommy that I’m really looking forward to their first day back??

We do!

People often ask me what it’s like to celebrate holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas abroad. We manage just fine, I think. I suppose it really boils down to what your expectations of the day are more than anything else.

When we lived in the United Arab Emirates, the weekend was Thursday / Friday so Thanksgiving was never an issue – we always had the day off! The weekend in Egypt however is Friday / Saturday so there have been times when the children actually had to go to school on Thanksgiving. As it happens, this year Thanksgiving coincides with a Muslim holiday so EVERYONE in Egypt has a long weekend.

As my husband and children are vegetarian, we don’t cook a turkey, though they are available. I saw some giant frozen Butterball turkeys at the store the other day. Just thinking how much fossil fuel energy that turkey must have consumed to travel to all the way to Cairo is staggering, frankly. And I wouldn’t want to think about how many times it might have thawed just a bit on the way! But if you are really into your turkey, it is still probably worth the money. A neighbor of mine bought a local turkey one year and in the end was very disappointed. Turns out, the shop had sold her a rooster! They compensated her by giving her a Butterball after the fact, but that didn’t make up for the fact that they ruined her holiday meal.

On a normal day, I’m a one-pot meal kind of cook. On Thanksgiving, I go all out (for me, anyway!). I make a pumpkin pie, stuffing, mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy, cranberry sauce, a veggie (this year, steamed broccoli), and a lieu of a turkey we have lentil loaf. It’s a meal we all enjoy and since we only make it on the holidays, it’s all the more special.

There’s no Macy’s Day parade or football to watch, but the children don’t mind because Thanksgiving is when I finally lift the ban on watching Christmas movies

Whatever your plans for the holiday, I hope you have a great weekend.

I was thinking about it the other day and I not only eat seasonally, but I cook seasonally. When the weather turns hot I don’t want to bake anything or even think about eating a steaming bowl of soup. I want light, easy food that is also going to keep me cool.

Yesterday, inspired by the bounty of fresh tomatoes in the shops, I made a big pot of gazpacho. Today I bought some fresh cilantro so I can make some salsa to go with bean burritos. Not sure what the rest of the week holds, because in addition to the weather, I’m trying not to buy too much food since we are leaving for our summer vacation next week. No point in stocking up the cupboards for the ants. The menu might become sort of strange as we draw nearer to our departure date and are trying to finish up a bit of this and a bit of that.

What do you like to eat when the weather is hot? I could use a little inspiration…