Grilled Cheese BLT

No More Pencils, No More Books…
This week marks the last week of school for a lot of folks, and for those of us who have been experiencing end of school year burn out, it can’t come too soon. It’s not just the kids who get burned out, it is also the parents, and I’ve reached my limit.

For the next 10 weeks there will be no lunch-making, no did you do your homework?, no why aren’t you ready to go?, no why didn’t you tell me about this project sooner?, no what time is practice? and no can you pick up this kid, because I need to pick up the other kid halfway across town, in afternoon commute traffic?.

For the next 10 weeks I might actually get to enjoy a cup of coffee before I get to work. For the next 10 weeks there is a better than average chance that someone will do a load of laundry (folding optional). And I know without question, that for the next 10 weeks my sons (and most likely their cousin) will be eating a legitimate lunch (meaning not just cereal straight from the box), only because their younger sister will make it for them. She has been known to encourage their couch potato/sloth-like habits by making up a “Summer Menu” for them. This helps me out because I now have a ready-made list of shopping items to have on hand for Zee Chef. See? Win-win for everyone. It will be dark times though, when she is at camp…

Although the menu has not yet been set, one item that will certainly be on there is grilled cheese. We’re all grilled cheese fans. How can you not be? It’s bread and cheese. (Word!) So it would not surprise me if this is the most popular meal, whether it be the traditionally grilled version or hot off the Panini press.

I like to experiment with my grilled cheeses. Use different cheeses or adding veggies and spreads to them. Irish Dubliner and some thin sliced green apple is one of my favorites…Brie works too.

So here’s to the start of Summer and to a quick grilled cheese meal to get you out and enjoying the most fun time of the year!

Making a Great Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Everyone knows how to make a grilled cheese sandwich, right? You need bread, you need butter, and you need cheese. Then you cook it in a flat, oiled pan until brown on both sides. Here are a few tips to make yours extra-delicious—and also a few of the infinite variations for customizing this favorite comfort food.

Lemon Chicken over Buttered Pasta

When Life Hands You Lemons…
This post was supposed to be about barbecue ‘cause, ya know, this weekend is Memorial Day, and that usually means sparking up the coals, and grilling your favorite meat. I’m just not feeling it. While I am fairly certain that there will be something on the grill this weekend, (In fact, I know it. My sons’ friends are coming over. That means man food…well, almost man food.) I can’t get this recipe for Lemon Chicken over Buttered Pasta out of my head.

The reality is we have been grilling a lot lately, so the idea of grilling again seems, meh. Feeling in a bit of a rut, I went searching for something different to make for dinner last night. I landed on this chicken recipe. which looked great but I was hesitant. We eat a lot of chicken—which isn’t a bad thing, but we eat a lot of chicken. Feels a little like Groundhog Day. My other hesitation was the lemon.

I love lemons, as do my sons. The husband too, but a little goes along way. My daughter, well, it depends on which way the wind is blowing. Making Lemon Chicken was a bit of a risk, but I am always up for a challenge and it’s an Ina recipe. How can you go wrong with the Contessa?

I took a chance, made the chicken, and served it over buttered pasta (bribery for the kids). To my surprise it was a hit, and the kids took some for lunch today. Rock On.

This one is definitely going in the rotation. Feel free to mess with the amount of lemon. I dialed it back a bit for the aforementioned reasons. Also, I didn’t have skin-on breasts, so I just used boneless skinless. Turned out fine. Might try it with legs and thighs next time….

Lemon Chicken over Buttered Pasta
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Red Chilaquiles

Breakfast, It’s What’s for Dinner
I have long been a fan of breakfast for dinner—it kind of feels like you’re breaking the rules a bit. A rebel without a spoon, if you will…

We would have breakfast for dinner once in a while when I was growing up, usually waffles ‘cause Dad was a big fan. When I moved out on my own, scrambled eggs and toast made for and easy and cheap dinner. Throw a little salsa on there, and it was a fiesta. Ole!

Nowadays we have breakfast for dinner at least 3 times a month. It’s my culinary equivalent to running up the white flag. Whether it is because of time constraints, over-achieving chickens or the inability to string an idea together beyond eggs, breakfast is a great way to avoid extreme pizza, Chinese take-out, burger fatigue.

Breakfast for dinner almost always involves whatever I have on hand. Sometimes that means straight up scrambled eggs and toast. Sometimes there’s bacon or sausage. Pancakes have been known to make an appearance, with or without pecans and bananas. Other times there might be drop biscuits and honey instead of toast. My favorite though, is when there are leftover tortilla chips because that means one thing: Chilaquiles.

My love of Mexican food is well documented which is why it should come as no surprise that my favorite breakfast for dinner dish is basically Mexican breakfast. If you have never had Chilaquiles you have been missing out on the ultimate comfort food and hangover cure (or so I have been told). It’s spicy, cheesy, crispy goodness piled high on your plate. Sometimes there is shredded chicken. Sometimes I use salsa verde or regular salsa instead of making a red sauce…just depends on mood and my previous shopping trips.

So next time you find yourself with a half-eaten bag of stale tortilla chips, give this a shot!

Red Chilaquiles
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Spicy Baked Chicken Wings

The Cookbook Club
Four years ago, my sister was inspired by the Food 52’s annual Piglet cookbook competition (it’s going on right now) to start a cookbook club with a group of five friends, and their families, who she knew were interested in cooking. Though some us had met before, and in some cases knew each other pretty well, it was a random group of people thrown together in pursuit of good food. The common denominator was my sister, and her love of friends and cooking.

This past weekend we celebrated our 20th Cookbook Club dinner—which is pretty remarkable considering that to make it happen five families have to coordinate their busy schedules. The cooking and choosing of books is the easy part. Try navigating through the sports, school, and work demands of 21 people. Our cookbook was the Brown Sugar Kitchen Cookbook by Tanya Holland. To say we ate well would be an understatement.

When the club started, nobody thought it would last this long. We hoped it would, but you know how these things go…they eventually fizzle out, or there’s drama between group members.

What makes this group different is it has ceased to just be about the food. The food is fantastic, but the real draw is wanting to spend time and catch up with each other. (If we can do that while having some rockin’ chicken wings and a cocktail, so much the better.) The change happened, I think, the night we went to The Slanted Door for dinner.

In February of 2013, we chose Vietnamese Home Cooking by Charles Phan as our cookbook. (See Bo Luc Lac: Shaking Beef, our What’s For Dinner Wednesday post from February 2013.) But, instead of having a dinner at someone’s house, we decided this time we would do it a little differently. We made reservations for 10 (Adult swim. No Kids.) at the Slanted Door and had Charles Phan (sort of…who knows who was on the line that night?) cook us our cookbook club dinner. (We were hoping he could sign our cookbooks while we were there. Didn’t happen.) We ordered all of the dishes we had made at home, and discussed them as we would at any club dinner. We laughed. We drank. We were loud and it was a blast. (The club is looking at doing the same thing for our next cookbook, Mustard’s Grill Napa Valley Cookbook by Cindy Pawlcyn. Brace yourself, Napa!)

They say food brings friends and family together, and if the friendships that have come out of this genius idea of my sister’s are any indication, it’s true. We call ourselves a cookbook club but it is so much more than that. We’ve bonded over so many other things besides food: woodworking, medical emergencies, teen angst, kids leaving for college… But it started when all of us sat around the table together and ate a really good meal.

If you’re curious, the list of cookbooks we covered can be found here.

Spicy Baked Chicken Wings
Adapted from Brown Sugar Kitchen Cookbook by Tanya Holland
Makes about 20 wings
Her recipe is about perfect. The only thing I would do to improve it is to marinate the wings in buttermilk before baking.