An easy anniversary meal

The Valentine's Day before Trillian and I started our relationship, mere days before, we looked through the special ads in our university newspaper and cackled over the mushy proclamations on a Hallmark holiday.

Now, with our anniversary so soon after the holiday, Valentine's Day feels a bit superfluous. We might do things like a fun dessert--any excuse for chocolate!--but we save our special meal for our anniversary. Sometimes we'll take the opportunity to try a particularly nice restaurant, but we've also been known to cook up a nice meal at home.

This year, I looked at the calendar and sighed. Not only is our anniversary on a weeknight, it's on the one night I have to take Scooter to Capital City for gymnastics. We'd be able to have a late-ish dinner, but the thought of starting to cook that late when I knew I'd be tired was not appealing.

And then the epiphany: why not a crockpot meal? I started to look through recipes I'd saved, but Trillian knew immediately what she wanted. It's a recipe I originally wanted to try because of how very simple it is: Sundried Tomatoes and Feta Tri-Tip. Even better, it tastes wonderful.

I'm planning on trying my hand at the crockpot creme brulee recipe a day or two earlier so that I can just broil it a little before dinner. And I'll serve the tri-tip with some of our frozen haricots verts. A fancy, satisfying meal with a minimum of preparation!

Sundried Tomatoes and Feta Tri-Tip

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of tri-tip steak (it's a triangular cut from the sirloin butt--I don't remember exactly what cuts I've ended up using, but this has worked well with any cut I've tried.)
• 1 jar of sundried tomatoes, drained (I've also used some that were vacuum-packed without liquid and just threw in a tiny bit of oil.)
• approx. 8 ounces of feta cheese--or more, which is Trillian's preference
• 1/3 cup liquid (the recipe calls for white wine, I've used chicken stock successfully.)

1. Put the meat in the crockpot, frozen is fine.
2. Put the tomatoes on top of the meat, repeat with the feta. Toss in the liquid.
3. Cook on low, 6-10 hours, depending on the thickness and frozen-ness of the meat.

Seriously, it's that easy. And so delicious. I'm looking forward to enjoying it with whatever excellent wine Trillian picks to go with it.

For my valentine: chocolate truffles

On most Saturday nights, we have dinner with my in-laws, cooked by my in-laws. Even though this coming Saturday is Valentine's Day, I kind of figured they didn't have plans to go out. Much like us, they're avoiding unnecessary expenses--and a nice meal out definitely qualifies. So we'll all be dining together. I offered to bring dessert, wanting to do some small thing to mark the day.

My first thought was chocolate. Not only because it's fairly traditional for Valentine's Day, but also because Trillian is a chocoholic. (And both of my in-laws also enjoy their chocolate.) I was going to go with fondue, but decided it would be hard to transport all the bits I'd need and would require cooking on the spot, possibly getting into others' way.

So I went with chocolate truffles. Seriously, what could be better than a good, dark chocolate truffle?

There are a lot of recipes out there and all sorts of opportunities to experiment with flavor. But at their base, truffles are cream and chocolate, a basic ganache. I found an "Easy chocolate truffles" recipe and went from there.


Ingredients:

• A bit more than 1 1/4 cups of finely chopped chocolate. It was supposed to be 8 ounces, but I guesstimated. I cut a bunch off of a block of semi-sweet dark chocolate (the stuff in plastic wrap) and a little from the unsweetened Ghirardelli bar. I used a very sharp knife and found it cut the chocolate very nicely.
• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream.
• 2 Tbsp butter.
• Whatever you want to cover the truffles.
  

1. Cut the chocolate and place in a bowl that can hold at least twice as much as the chocolate.
2. Heat the cream and butter in a small saucepan. Stir frequently to avoid scorching and to mix the butter in. You want to get it up to a simmer/low boil.
3. Pour the cream mixture over the chocolate. Cover the bowl and let sit 5 minutes.
4. Whisk the cream-chocolate mixture until it starts to thicken a little.
5. Cover the bowl tightly and put it in the refrigerator. I left it there overnight.
6. Prepare your dusting ingredients. I put some hot cocoa mix (also dark chocolate, the type that usually needs milk to prepare), chopped walnuts, and shaved chocolate (from the bar I used for the truffles themselves) on small plates.
7. Scoop small amounts of ganache and roll into balls. I used our cookie-dough scoop. The truffles were a little big, but the scoop makes it easy and less messy.
8. Roll the balls in the topping of choice. Set on parchment paper.

I set aside a total of 12 and placed them in silicone cupcake holders--red, as it happens, so perfect for Valentine's Day. Plus, putting three of them in a holder almost makes a heart shape.
I had enough left over to set 3 aside for Trillian to have before Saturday.

And one to try right now. Smooth and chocolatey.

The dangerous thing is that they're not at all hard to make. Perhaps too easy. And we frequently have the basic ingredients on hand. Trillian's not at all opposed to this development.

My favorite shrimp recipe (plus chard)

For once, not a crockpot meal! So this requires cooking time in the evening, but it is so worth it! The trickiest part for me is remembering to put the shrimp into the fridge to thaw. (We always keep at least a pound there.) But a nice thing about shrimp is that it's so easy to defrost, even if you don't remember until a little before. Just put some cool water in the bag, change on occasion, until the ice is gone. Remove the shell, if still on, and pat dry.

In a skillet, heat oil--I use olive or safflower. Then I sprinkle in some chili flakes. We keep some dried chili that we got from the farmers' market and use this. Sometimes I throw in a couple cloves of garlic. Toss in the shrimp and squeeze (or pour, if you're using bottled) lime juice over the top. Scoot shrimp around, turn as necessary, until opaque.

What I usually do at this point is put the warm shrimp onto a plate and tent with aluminum foil. Because my favorite thing to serve as a side is sauteed chard. Using the same skillet as I used for the shrimp, I cook up the chard (which I have already washed and separated from the tough stalk), stirring it around until it's wilted. It picks up some of the chili (and garlic if in there) taste.

Serve up and enjoy. Try not to grab a few more shrimp as you walk by the plate.

Lunch frustrations

I pack a lunch for Scooter four mornings a week; he has early release one day a week, so then I only pack a snack for recess-time (though I was so into the rhythm of packing a lunch that it took me half the year before I quit packing a full lunch on those days). Hot lunch is simply not an option since I have yet to see a single meal that would be gluten-free. Or, for that matter, that he would eat.

Most of the time, I'm at peace with what I send to school with him. Basically it ends up looking like a selection of snacks, packaged in a series of small containers and ziplocs. A usual lunch:

• 1-3 carbs. The usual suspects are Puffins Cereal, apple and cinnamon cereal, and pretzels.
• 1 fruit item. Slices of apple or pear, usually 1/2 of the piece of fruit. Recently, he's also allowed grapes.
• Cheese stick. He doesn't like string cheese, so these are cheddar (from Trader Joe's) or colby sticks.
• Orange juice.
• An occasional extra. He'll sometimes accept raisins and is definitely willing to have a cookie.

If he actually ate all of this, I would not be worrying. This is relatively balanced, albeit a little heavy on carbs. But the fact of the matter is that most of this comes back home at the end of the day. Over the course of 2 recesses (when they're allowed to have a small snack) and lunch, he might consume 1/2 of one of the carbs, 1/2 of the fruit, the cheese stick, and the orange juice. And that's the upper limit of what he'll eat.

Sandwiches, the old standby of cold lunches, are a no-go. The only type Scooter will eat at home is grilled cheese, and that just doesn't travel well. He won't touch peanut butter. And, to be fair, the gluten-free bread just doesn't taste good untoasted. The one time I tried to include a hot dog in his lunch (sans bread), he screeched at me about giving him hot lunch when he didn't eat hot lunch.

On the plus side, we've been able to get him to eat eggs and breakfast meat in the mornings, good amounts even. And then we usually make a grilled cheese sandwich for him after school, so at least he's getting some calories.

Of course, after the afternoon grilled cheese, dinner can be an issue...

Eating my veggies

I'm going to hit two recipes in one post. I don't think I can dub either one as a go-to recipe, mostly because Trillian is not crazy about either one. Most of that is her general dislike of vegetables. (Side note: For the first almost-ten years of our relationship, I was a vegetarian and she most definitely was not. And once I'm done with the whole child-bearing thing, I plan on greatly cutting back on my meat consumption again. Interesting times.)

The first vegetarian recipe I tried from A Year of CrockPotting was the Vegetarian No Noodle Lasagna. It uses eggplant and squash as the 'noodles.' I've made it twice and go back and forth on the eggplant, both in this and in general, but I will probably make it again with just squash. I absolutely love the spinach and mushrooms in this (or in anything really). Just possibly, this is not one of Trillian's favorites since she is not a fan of mushrooms or cooked spinach. (Side note #2: While I was a vegetarian and still eating wheat, we made good use of two-pizza deals. My favorite combo of toppings for a very long time was mushroom and black olives. It would be hard for me to pick two things Trillian likes less on her pizza.)

The other vegetarian recipe I tried was Indian Spinach and Tofu. One of my favorite Indian dishes is palak paneer, and this seemed like it might satisfy that craving. I ate a lot when it was first ready, but didn't like how it tasted as leftovers. I'll be giving it another try with a few modifications. The tofu in particular did not hold up well, so I may either leave it out or keep it on the side--or maybe go with cheese. I've also seen potato cubes suggested. The chickpeas also didn't hold up well for me, so I'll likely leave those out (or make some hummus instead). And then I would seriously up the spices, but I enjoy a little bite.

So now the trick for me is to figure out some easy vegetarian recipes that will appeal to a non-veggie palate so that I can justify making them more than once in a blue moon.

A fine cup of coffee

Ever the romantics, Trillian told me specifically what she wanted for Christmas. When I ordered her gift, I picked out something for myself and told her what she got for me. But frankly, it would be hard for us to go wrong when we're ordering from Sweet Maria's.

Trillian had been eying vacuum coffee brewers for a while. She decided on the Yama 8-cup, stove-top model.

On first reading the process of vacuum brewing, it can be a bit intimidating. For me, anything made of glass that could shatter immediately sends a number of nightmare scenarios running through my brain. But now that I've been roasting our coffee for a while though, I'm a little braver and willing to jump into new things.

The process is sort of fun to watch. The basics:

1. Put filter into top section. Add ground coffee on top.
2. Add water to bottom. (If it's pre-heated, the rest goes faster.)
3. Fit the top part into the bottom so that a seal is created.
4. Place on low flame. Wait until nearly all the water goes into the upper chamber.
5. Let brew for a minute or so.
6. Remove from heat and wait until the coffee funnels back into the bottom.

Then enjoy an amazing cup of coffee.

The directions point out that this coffee is likely to be a bit different from what one is accustomed to. It is 'cleaner,' in that there truly are no grounds left in it. The mouth-feel is soft and smooth, very pure.

This is the way we like to end our evenings now, with a pot of delicious decaf. Excuse me while I go pour another cup.

Cheesecake in the crockpot!

This is the recipe that first got me to go check out A Year of CrockPotting, even if I am only now getting around to it.

So in one of my time-wasting incarnations, I was spending a lot of time on a major newspaper's celebrity blog. Generally with online newspaper postings, I have a policy of not reading comments since they tend to make my blood boil after a very short time. This blog, however, is an exception, as the comments are often funny, even as they veer wildly off-topic. One day, there was some food discussion in the comments, and a regular mentioned she was having gluten-free cheesecake that she had made in the crockpot. And then she left the url.

In this recipe, the crockpot basically serves as a bain marie. I put off attempting it in my 4 quart, since the only cooking dishes that would fit into it were too small to be cheesecake-worthy. Now that I have my 6 quart, it seemed the perfect dish to try out (despite this whole trying-to-eat-better-and-get-in-shape thing).

Now a note about my version: There is no crust. Stephanie has instructions for it with the original recipe. I have also made a crust before by crushing up ginger snaps and mixing with melted butter. But... Cheesecake is something we've discovered Scooter will eat, except he always leaves the crust. AND I'm trying to avoid carbs (or so I say, but the slice of toast and rice I had at dinner tonight say otherwise). So I felt like a crust would be wasted--and those gluten-free cookies are not cheap enough to basically throw away.

Ingredients:
- 16 oz cream cheese, room temperature (I used two tubs, since they were on sale.)
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/4 cup heavy cream (I let this get to room temperature too--not sure if it's necessary.)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 Tbsp flour (I used brown rice flour)

1. Find a baking dish that will fit into the bottom of the crockpot. I have an oval casserole dish (not sure of capacity) that fit with an inch or two gap all around.
2. Mix ingredients together. I did this by hand, but will use our stand-mixer next time. There were a few cream-cheese lumps in the finished product, but it didn't affect the overall taste. Put this into the baking dish.
   
3. Add some water to the crockpot, then carefully place the dish into it. I started with a cup, and ended up adding some more after putting the dish in (with a funnel stuck in the gap).
4. Cook for 2-3 hours on high. Check at an hour or so. It's done when you touch it and don't get too much stuff on your finger. Mine cooked for just over 2 hours.
   
5. Turn off crockpot, let sit for an hour or so, then put in fridge to set.

Trillian and I both liked this a lot. Scooter thought it didn't look right--I guess because it didn't have the crust he wasn't going to eat--so he took one bite, said it tasted good, and then put his spoon down.

Technically, I can't call this a go-to recipe since the whole point of that goal is to come up with easy dinner recipes. Don't get me wrong, I totally could eat this in place of a regular dinner, but the adult in me knows that this can only be a sometimes treat.