You know what totally rocks about Whole Foods? In the cheese section there are these neat little stainless steel bowls that have small individually wrapped “leftover” sized blocks of cheese. You never know what you’ll find in there. Each is anywhere from $1 – $4 and you can just nibble your way through all sorts of cheeses pretty damn inexpensively and start checking off stuff on your Life List.

I will preface this first cheese entry with the following statement:

I know nothing about cheese. Well, except I like it. I’m sure there is some sort of cheese “lingo” like there is with wines, but I don’t know it. Yet. So here goes my first three tastings and the accompanying thoughts.

Cotswold
This creamy cheese was an EXCELLENT way to start this little Life List line item. It is a cow’s milk cheese that had onion essence (which totally makes me think “onion sweat”) and chives blended into the bulk of the cheese. I am a big fan of creamier cheeses and immediately thought how great this one would be diced up or grated into an omlette. It had a great tang to it and tasted great while sipping a 2008 Napa Landing Chardonnay. (Wine is totally unrelated here – it’s what we had around)

Seaside Cheddar
I am usually a huge fan of cheddars. I’m all for a strong, biting flavor, but this one left me a bit “meh”. It is a harder, white cheddar and really was too crumbly and dry for my tastes. Not a fan.

Jasper Hill Cheddar (Cloth Bound)
I have no idea what cloth bound means, but I intend to Google it soon. This cheddar was also a harder, white cheddar, but, unlike the Seaside Cheddar from before, it had a parmesan-like flavor and it was quite good. I actually grated it into a salad and liked the saltiness it added to the dish. Husband thought it had a slightly smoky flavor to it, but I didn’t taste “smoky” at all.

This is actually way beyond my life list item. Thanks to some creative gift-giving genius for Hanukkah this year Husband gifted the opportunity to not only cook with a great chef (and someone I’ve come to know over the past few years) at a favorite restaurant, but also create a dish to be featured on their menu.

I also got this:

Pretty cool, huh?

The first step, which I got to do last week, was meet with Owner/Chef Bruce and brainstorm the dish with some favorite ingredients. This became harder than originally imagined because when the opportunity was presented to me it was, well, winter. I had a dish and favorite ingredients all picked out. But then I hurt my back, the whole house got sick after sick after sick and, lo, there was The Asthma. Somewhere along the way I blinked and now it is Spring – and I had to change my game plan.

But last week the inspiration hit me. CRAB. I have some really great spring and summer growing-up memories around crab boils – and when I think of this season I taste crab in my mouth. So, there it was. The center of the dish.

Different from a Cajun crab boil, this would be a little more refined, but still fun. I decided to try a stacked salad that was pretty to look at and could work as a lunch entrée or a starter salad for dinner. Bruce helped add a great kick to it with the addition of a hit of chili paste/oil. Here is the final dish:

Crab Collonnade
From the bottom layer up… All tossed in a mustard vinaigrette.

Jumbo lump crabmeat
Julienned arugula & diced roasted asparagus
Diced tomatoes
Diced avocado

Mustard vinaigrette drizzled around the plate with large drops of chili paste/oil on four sides.

I wish I could bring you all to dinner to taste it – it’d be a helluva party.

I go to the grocery store to buy food.  And maybe browse a magazine.  Occassionally for the samples being handed out on Friday.  But mostly for the food.

A few months ago we made the decision to buy more organically.  I’m glad we did it and can see benefits of that choice, but my grocery cart looks radically different from the average next mom in line.  I still have chicken nuggets, juice pouches and spaghetti.  I haven’t stopped buying eggs or milk or yogurt or hot dogs or ice cream.  (Never will I be without ice cream.  Amen.)  In my basket is Frosted Flakes and Raisin Bran and fruit chews for snacks.

They just don’t look like yours, ma’am.

I get looks.  I get outstretched necks.  Today I got raised eyebrows and a “pfft” muttered under her breath. 

Sometimes I get questions. 

Does that stuff taste good?  Yes

What’s “uncured”?  It means it doesn’t have nitrates – the chemical that gives you a headache after you eat your hot dog.

Isn’t that more expensive?  Some.  Not all.  Mainly the proteins are more expensive.

Do your kids eat that stuff?  Yep.  Better than they did the other stuff.  Go figure.

I don’t mind answering the questions.  I’m not THAT MOM who shoves her choices down others throats.  I’m not fanatical and, yes, I love my pizza from the joint down the street.

But I’m getting tired of the stares, the raised eyebrows and the judging.  Really folks, it’s just food.  I don’t ask why your basket is full of generic ice cream, wine on sale, macaroni and cheese and lube.  Knock your socks off.

You want to ask a question?  Great.  I’ll answer it.  But if you just going to try to sneakily lean over to look more closely at my cart?  Back up out of my checkout line dance space.

According to you I’ve got trees to lick.

Before we get down to cheffing here I have to tell you this: I paid $20/lb for these g-dammned scallops and they better be orgasm-inducing in Bite One AND do the dishes after dinner is over.

(And, in all honesty, this is yet another reason why you should not be on a conference call while shopping at Whole Foods. You may or may not mistake the price tag for wild-caught shrimp ($9.99/lb) for wild-caught scallops ($19.99/lb) and have an ever-loving heart attack at the check out register. Duly noted, Universe.)

I got this recipe from my latest favoritist keeping boredom from the kitchen site, Relish! and adjusted it to serve 2 because my wee ones have not yet acquired the palette (or the privledge) to eat $20/lb scallops.

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
5 tablespoons butter, divided
1 1/4 pounds sea scallops, patted with paper towels to dry
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/2 shallot, minced *
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon zest of lemon
1/4 cup Italian parsley
2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, chopped

* addition to original recipe

In a large nonstick skillet, heat half of the oil with half the butter over medium heat. Season the scallops with salt and the pepper. Put half the scallops in the pan. Cook until browned, about 2 minutes.

Turn and cook until browned on the second side and just done, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove. Cook the remaining scallops, adding a little more oil, if needed. Remove.

Using whatever remaining oil and butter is in the pan, sautee the shallo. Put the pan over medium-low heat and add the wine. Boil until reduced, 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Whisk the remaining butter into the wine and stir for a few seconds. Sprinkle with a little more salt, the lemon zest, and the tarragon. Pour the sauce over the scallops, sprinkle with parsley and serve. Slice the lemon and serve wedges with the scallops.

(Published a little early on Wednesday. Sue me.)

Even if you are a working-from-home mom, coming up with menus week after week that are easy, interesting and tasty is just damn challenging. I’ve never had the organizational skills to “cook ahead” or “shop for the week” (and I hate leftovers). I can create a project budget, sell a deal, strategize and argue… but remembering to buy the Italian parsley escapes me more often than not.

So when I stumbled upon Relish! by way of whoorl, I was THRILLED! Here was a very simple service for $7/mo that let you pick from a list of entrees and side dishes that rotates every Thursday, set it to how ever many servings you needed AND build the g-ddamned shopping list?! Sign. Me. Up.

I decided to sign up for a three month trial and actually commit to using it. So far the recipes have been good, the shopping list highly organized and this has really helped keep dinner time chaos to a low roar. (I should also note that they categorize the entrees by healthy, kid-friendly, slow-cooker, vegetarian, etc.)

Last night I decided to try a recipe that is a little out of the box of my current repertoire in rotation: Baked Eggs with Mushrooms. Very French bistro, no?

Here’s the recipe and some pictures as well as some notes regarding a few enhancements I made. This serves two.

Note: you’ll need 10-ounce ramekins, custard cups or small oven-proof bowls. Also I used all organic ingredients which is a major win for me.

Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 25 minutes

2 tablespoons butter

1 garlic clove, minced *

1 slices white bread, cut into small cubes

coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1/2 white onion, thinly slicced

1/2 cup sliced button mushrooms

1/2 tablespoon Italian parsley, chopped

4 large eggs

1/8 cup heavy whipping cream

olive oil flavored cooking spray

*addition to original recipe

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

1. Lightly spray the ramekins with cooking spray. Set a kettle or pot of water to boil.

2. Heat half of the butter in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and sautee briefly to flavor the butter. Add the bread and cook, tossing occasionally, about 4 minutes to make it toasty. Remove garlic before it starts to burn. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a bowl.

3. Melt the rest of the butter in the skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, season with salt and pepper to taste and sautee until lightly carmelized*. Remove from pan and divide evenly between two ramekins/baking dishes.

*The original recipe calls for sautéing the onions, mushrooms and parsley together at once, but I preferred to caramelize the onions for an additional layer of flavor.

4. Add more butter if needed and sauté mushrooms and parsley and sauté for 3-5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add on top of onions in baking dishes, dividing evenly.

5. Divide the croutons evenly on top of the mushrooms in each ramekin/baking dish. Gently break 2 eggs into each ramekin (keeping the yolks intact). Top each ramekin with 1 teaspoon cream and season with salt and pepper. Place the ramekins in a 13x 9-inch baking dish and pour enough boiling water to come halfway up the side of the ramekins. Bake until whites are set, about 15 minutes.

Note: you want the whites to set, but still let the yolks be a little runny to make the dish creamy.

6. Carefully remove the ramekins from the water serve.

I served this with roasted lemon-parmesan asparagus and there was nothing left on the plate to speak of. A crisp white would go great with this.

I’d call that a hit. And I’d also tell you I’ve totally gotten my $7 worth this month so far. Other entrees I’m trying this week (all good):

Roasted Lemon-Garlic Chicken

Roasted Salmon with Snow Peas and Rice

Go check ‘em out!

A few weeks ago, I all but forced Husband to sit and watch Food, Inc. with me. For those of you that have seen this documentary you know why this title of this post is what it is. And let me say this: if you haven’t seen this film, you need to. It’s important. And that’s all I’ll say about that.

Needless to say the grocery shopping in this house has changed fairly dramatically since then. Some additional books have been purchased and I am sadly watching some food commercials with more nausea than interest these days.

Leah has been quick to notice the changes in the pantry and started questioning almost immediately why we are buying so much organic stuff. And NO this cereal does NOT taste the same as COCOA PUFFS and WHERE is the “REGULAR” cheese?!

I took some time trying to decide how and how much to explain to Leah about our decisions. She’s bright but can be terribly sensitive about certain things. I didn’t want her to go down a rat hole of fear regarding day to day food, but it was important for her to know the story. Finally I decided she needed to see parts of Food, Inc for herself. Yes, it’s slightly horrifying, but that’s the point, isn’t it? And if it became overwhelming, well, we could always turn it off.

Last night we watched it. Or at least parts of it. I had to stop and pause the DVD a few times to simplify some concepts or really make sure she understood a certain statement, but, not surprisingly, she caught on quick. And, bless her little magnificently linear brain, she did, indeed, go straight down a rat hole in horror. But I let her for awhile because I was proud of her for realizing certain facts without my telling her.

You see, at one point she sat straight up, looked at me with huge eyes of realization and said, “Mommy?! Does my school use organic food?!”

“No, sweetie. It doesn’t.”

One of the most exciting things in the world for her is to buy her lunch at school. I guess that’s sort of a right of passage in third grade. But she doesn’t want to do that any longer. She now wants to bring her lunch. EVERY DAY. AND DON’T LET ME FORGET, MOMMY!

I’m okay with that.

There were some real, fearful tears, a SHITLOAD of questions, a discussion of the science of bacteria, and more questions. She hit the wall of information pretty quickly and sat up and looked right at me and said, quite seriously, “I want to turn this off now.” So we did. She got the point. We didn’t need to give her nightmares.

I did explain to her that this doesn’t mean from time to time Mommy isn’t going to want a cheeseburger at the local family grill or a badass pizza at the joint attached to the ice rink. Because Mommy likes her grease. And it’s fine. Do we risk bad food and dangerous bacteria? Yep. But we can’t live in a complete bubble and we will do the best we can.

We will do our best to make better bad decisions.

Well, this weekend brought a wonderful visit from BestFriendWendy and her family all the way from Chicago. There was sharing and no sharing, laughing and no laughing, crying and no crying, Strawberry Shortcake, arts & crafts, and many, many Princess stories.

While the kiddos navigated through diplomatic and developmental minefields, we grown ups enjoyed massive amounts of food and drink, oh, and conversation. Here’s list of things that were consumed this weekend:

Asian-glazed, grilled salmon

Caesar salad (made the most rockin’ tofu based dressing I never thought I’d ever eat let alone make)

Asian-marinated, grilled portabella mushrooms

Drunken shrimp (Grilled. Think margarita and you’ll get the idea.)

Feta, tomato, green onion and cucumber orzo salad

Tons of ice cream. Tons.

Garlic dip

Hummus

Salsa fresca

Cheese. Jesus, the cheese.

The freshest strawberries and blueberries G-d ever made

Chocolate chip cookies

…And anything the kids didn’t finish

It was awesome. Just like the company.

This morning brought a carpool ride to the airport with the first stop being the Swimmy’s first day of camp. Oy.

She was very excited to start camp. Much like her Mommy and Daddy, her favorite part of the morning was deciding what in the world to pack for lunch today!

Because she is now in camp with some of the older kids, she gets to swim twice a day: instructional and just for fun. The parents’ manual said we should send two bathing suits and two towels for this. And a change of clothes. Perhaps two. Uh, do you have any idea how big a bag she’d have to take to accommodate all this shit? Right. Here are two bathing suits and one towel. Deal with it. I’ll be ecstatic if they both come home.

And she ran right in, which is so awesome. But, I keep thinking, “I hope she’s made a little friend. I hope her counselors don’t suck. I hope she actually SWIMS today.” And? I kinda miss her (eventhough she’s never home during the day because of school) – and wish I could go over to her camp and just peek around a corner to see what she’s doing.

I think I’ll go find those chocolate chip cookies.

And finally, news from Little Rock. After a horrible stretch up there, it appears the sun is beginning to shine and my folks may actually get to come home shortly. Dad is hoping they’ll get sprung by Saturday. This time the treatment was an awful stretch. The kind of awful where you don’t think you could possibly do that again (which she is supposed to do). But, The Battle continues.

Luckily, once they’re released, they get to come home for two whole months. An eternity! And this stretch of home includes meeting their newest grandchild next month (holy shit). Not a bad “reward”. And the Swimmy is ready to see them again as well. Hell we all are.

Well, how’s that for four days? Sorry for the break in posting – more to come later today!

Hope your weekend was fantastic.