You call THAT home cooking?

“Wow, Mom, that looks amazing!” These were Sophia’s exact words when she saw her dinner plate last night. And what amazing dinner elicited such unbridled enthusiasm from such a small diner? Grilled Coleman uncured beef hot dogs (these really are amazing!), grilled corn on the cob (wrapped in foil with butter and salt) and sautéed baby spinach with garlic. And, until I heard her response, I never in a million years would have chosen to blog about this meal, because it would never make the cut.

The cut? When I started this blog, I decided that I would only write about meals cooked “from scratch.” To me, this had a very clear definition: buy a bunch of ingredients, chop them up, cook them up, serve them up. Very little if anything pre-made or packaged. I assumed, too, that this is how the rest of the world would define home cooking. So, last night’s dinner, while delicious, didn’t qualify as homemade to me. Yes, I shucked, buttered and salted corn, minced garlic and sautéed it with baby spinach, but this is unremarkable. In fact, most of the gaps between dates on my blog are either because we’re eating leftovers or because we’re having meals like last night’s (or, if I’m really lucky, we’re out). But Sophia’s enthusiasm, and a recent article in The New York Times, got me to thinking.

Michael Pollan, who wrote In Defense of Food, had a recent piece in the Times inspired by Julie & Julia and the rising popularity of food television. The article is long, and I certainly have no intention of summarizing it, but he did make one interesting point that stuck with me. He has a long conversation with a food-marketing researcher, Harry Belzer, about what people today consider “cooking.” According to Belzer, most people consider any assembling of ingredients to be cooking from scratch. Even just washing a head of lettuce and pouring bottle dressing on it. When Pollan tried to press Belzer on the number of people who still really cook from scratch, he learned that they don’t track that degree of home cooking because so few people actually do it. Ouch!

I was fascinated to find that my definition of home cooking was a) in line with Pollans and b) a less and less common activity. It validated for me my original intention in starting this blog, to capture the details of real homemade meals, and to celebrate the outcome of my sometimes considerable efforts to feed my family well.

But now, Sophia has me thinking. Hot dogs, corn, sautéed spinach. Does this a home-cooked meal make?

Bean Tostadas

Honestly, I was reluctant to blog about this dinner because, well, it involved very little cooking and lots of assembling. After mulling it for a day or so I realized that if I don’t write about assembled meals, I’ll have nothing to write about all summer! In our house, and probably in the homes of many, summer meals are often cobbled together from what is fresh and in-season at the local farmer’s market and what is affordable and beautiful at King Soopers. And what involves very little stove- and oven-time. Thus, the bean tostadas. Honestly, there’s nothing particularly summer-y about this dish other than the fact that it doesn’t require a lot of standing over the stove.

Simply, here are our bean tostadas: corn tortillas brushed with canola oil and crisped in a hot oven, a blend of vegetarian refried and pinto beans heated in the microwave, diced vine-ripened tomatoes, chopped black olives, chopped organic iceberg lettuce, shredded cheddar cheese and sliced avocado. All topped with Aunt Jenn’s homemade salsa, which is garlic-y goodness.

That’s it. Easy peasy. Not remotely authentic but devoured by all. Certainly unremarkable but very tasty and takes about 15 minutes in all to pull together.

Creamy Pasta with Cremini, Asparagus & Walnuts

Giada is the master of the no-sauce pasta, and this recipe is no exception. Not remarkable, but simple and full of veggies, this is a great weeknight dinner. I also like that it’s easy to switch out the green veggie based on what’s affordable and in season. Theoretically asparagus is in season right now, but it was $3 a pound and very thick yesterday, so I opted instead for frozen petite peas, which are sweet, bright green and absolutely delicious! If you have not discovered these yet, rush right out and buy a bag. They’re fabulous in pasta or risotto, very affordable, and one of those veggies that doesn’t need to be organic.

I also used whole wheat rotini instead of farfalle, because I think whole wheat pasta makes better leftovers... it just holds up nicely. The biggest problem with this recipe is that it lacks depth of flavor and it doesn’t reheat well. I don’t really like black pepper at all, except as a flavoring in soups, but even I sprinkled this with a little pepper to add some punch. And the mascarpone that you toss in to make the “sauce” gets lost in reheating. 

I’ve made this before and I’ll continue to make it, even thought it’s a three-star recipe. It only takes about 20 minutes to prep and cook, I love the combination of walnuts, green veggie and sautéed mushrooms and it makes a lot of food, providing an extra lunch or dinner for later in the week.

Fettuccine with Smashed Peas, Sausage & Ricotta Cheese

This is our first “tag team” blog entry. I had a massage at 5:00 Monday evening (ahhh!), so I prepped all of the ingredients for Ben to put this dish together, which he managed to do while wrangling a four year old and a three month old... no small feat!

To me, this is a perfect example of a recipe that looks amazing on paper and is ho-hum in reality. Nothing wrong with it, necessarily, except perhaps a lack of cohesion. Ben and I both had problems articulating what was wrong aside from the fact that the flavors never meshed.

We had to laugh, because before this blog project, we would have given this recipe a four or five. Now, our standards seem permanently elevated and a perfectly fine dinner gets an average rating. Kind of puts the pressure on for years to come, no? We’ve decided, also, that we need to standardize the rating system a bit, so look for that in a future post. Can’t live without a rubric! I guess once a teacher, always a teacher.

For the sauce, you sauté garlic and Italian sausage, then add peas and smash them with the back of your spoon or with a potato masher. One note: the recipe calls for hot Italian sausage, but I used Boulder Sausage’s mild Italian sausage in lieu of hot in the interest of Sophia’s and my palates. I’m not convinced that the added heat would have added much to improve the dish.

You then stir in ricotta cheese and chopped fresh basil and some Pecorino Romano and toss with the pasta and some pasta water. Easy enough, and certainly very flavorful. The smashed peas and basil give the pasta a rather lovely springy green color and flavor, and the sausage is yummy in its own right. But, somehow, none of it goes together. Our feeling is that it’s a good basic recipe, but that we might play around a bit with the meat and might add a bit of grated lemon zest to complement the peas and basil. 

Fine, but not too exciting. Of course, it had peas, sausage and basil, three of Sophia’s favorites, so she gave it five stars. We’re saying three. I think we’ll move on to some of Giada’s other offerings another time, but likely won’t return to this, at least as written.

Whole-Wheat Linguine with Green Beans, Ricotta & Lemon

As we shared this dish, Eryc, Ben, Sophia and I vigorously debated what rating to give it (my blog has become a family endeavor!) This is a tricky recipe to rate, because it was fundamentally good, but, at the same time, everyone had lots of ideas for improvement. Add crumbled bacon, crisped pancetta, toasted pine nuts, etc. Ultimately, the dish’s imperfections dropped it from a 4 to a 3. That said, it was simple and tasty, creamy without feeling at all heavy and made great use of crisp-tender fresh green beans and cherry tomatoes. 

My mom, Diana, brought me this cookbook, Giada’s Kitchen, this winter, and I love the simplicity of her recipes, her use of flavorful but easy-to-find ingredients, and, to be honest, the beautiful photographs of Giada. Truly, she’s spectacular!

Anyway... Sophia and I have been reading through this book, looking at pictures and talking about the things that are new to her, like yellow heirloom tomatoes and rasp graters (we have a weird household). I picked this because I like the idea of a creamy pasta without a lot of fat—it uses part-skim ricotta. Also, I have fallen in love with the texture of whole-wheat pasta, and have found that it holds up better as leftovers.

All in all, this was colorful, tasty and quick. I do think it needs the added dimension of pine nuts or pancetta, or perhaps a little warmth from red pepper flakes, and I might use a bit more green beans and tomatoes, since everyone here really loves their veggies.

Grandma Guglietta’s Marinara with Turkey Meatballs

Two hours and 1,000 sauce splatters later, we just sat down to Grandma Guglietta’s marinara (this is Eryc’s Italian grandmother, Sophia’s great-grandmother) with turkey meatballs from Joy of Cooking.

This used to be my absolute favorite sauce, and it is wonderful for thick, rick gravy, especially over Lorraine’s crepe-like manicotti. However, we’ve recently become accustomed to the sharp, bright flavors of The Splenid Table’s smoky tomato sauce, and now this sauce disappoints in its just-what-you’d expect-edness (no, this is not a word... what word am I looking for?).

The turkey meatballs were also good, fine, but not nearly as good as they were when my mom made them for us December 21, 2006. Of course, we were snowed in with Grandma Lee after a record 36 inches, so everything may have tasted better then!

I will say that the meal was yummy in a comfort food sort of way, but not a good use of two hours of my life and not worth the sauce splattered kitchen.

Creamy Fettuccine with Asparagus

Ah... spring! Time to get our fill of asparagus, artichokes and fresh berries. This dish, while perfect on paper, resulted in pasta that was fine, but uninspiring. As mentioned in a previous post, Great Food Fast is my go-to cookbook for weeknight inspiration, and for a weeknight dinner this was certain tasty enough. However, the dish lacks interest.

The one change I’ve made is to omit the fresh dill, which I don’t like in anything but pickles and vinegar-based potato salads. I also doubled the pine nuts, because I had extra and because Sophia loves, loves, loves them.

Next time I have two pounds of fresh asparagus, I’m making risotto or serving it steamed with soft scrambled eggs (divine!). And there are certainly better uses of a perfectly yummy log of Haystack Mountain goat cheese. Crusty bread alone would put it to better use.

Rotini with Spinach Sauce

This is a quick, simple recipe by Food Network’s Giada De Laurentiis. I’ve made this once before but forget to make notes on it, so made it again tonight to use leftover baby spinach. 

I appreciate how quickly this dish comes together, and the sauce is a beautiful bright green... very appetizing looking. I doubled the sauce ingredients and skipped the addition of pasta water. My only complaint is that the raw garlic (which I halved) is too strong--it gives the dish a “hot” feeling on the tongue (and gives the diner horrible breath!). If I make this again, I'll use roasted garlic or skip it all together and add pine nuts or some other flavorful ingredient.

Otherwise, this is simple and lovely.

Oh, and the dish called for penne, but I can’t stand the texture of hollow pasta, so I used organic whole wheat rotini instead.