Cashew butter and raspberry jam

So, yesterday I didn't have any brainstorms as to what to serve for lunch. I thought I'd take the standard American route and go peanut butter and jelly on storebought wheat.

But then I found seedless red raspberry jam in the back of the fridge and the remnants of a jar of cashew butter. That's what we had with a big red delicious apple and a glass of chocolate soy milk.

Mommy's PB&J sampler

The other day we were pressed for time so I made my daughter this PB&J sampler for lunch.

Bread: from the freezer, one of my homemade wheat baguettes.

Jellies:

• one little sandwich was PB & grape smuckers
• one little sandwich was PB & my mother-in-law's strawberry jam
• the last little sandwich was PB & wegman's seedless red raspberry jam
  

Pork cutlets with raspberry sauce and parsley carrots

For lunch today, I served lunch for four at a cost of probably about $2 per person.

I had some leg of pork cutlets I got from Wegmans with a coupon for $2. I seasoned them and made my raspberry sauce with champagne vinegar, Chambord, and organic raspberry jam. (Pretty much equal parts each in the skillet with the meat juices after the pork is cooked. See the pork recipe in May for the full version.)

I took lots of parsley from my garden and cooked 3/4 bag baby carrots. I made a butter-parsley sauce.

Then I served with my homemade rye rolls.

Crêpes with strawberry-banana filling

I decided to make crêpes with strawberry filling.

That may sound unremarkable, but somewhere I stumbled off the tried and true path and started experimenting.

Ingredients for Strawberry-Banana Crêpes
Butter
Lots of fresh strawberries, sliced
2 to 3 bananas
powdered sugar (for dusting)
1/2 cup flour
canola oil
1 egg
2 tablespoons Chambord
4 teaspoons organic raspberry jam
4 teaspoons organic sugar
water
sea salt
3/4 cup milk (or in my case, soy milk)

I had my husband slice about a quart of fresh strawberries. While he did that, my daughter and I poured two tablespoons Chambord and the jam into the bottom of a one-cup pyrex measuring glass. We added water so it would hit the one cup mark. We put it in a small saucepan and boiled. Then we added the strawberries and the four teaspoons sugar. We ended up adding some corn starch later to thicken the mix, and we boiled it so long the strawberries were reduced to a lumpy syrup, but oh, well, lesson for next time.

For the crêpe batter, we put the flour and a pinch of salt in the bottom of a mixing bowl. We stirred in the milk and the egg. And then a drizzle of canola oil, about half a teaspoon. We stirred until smooth and then I whisked until my arm got sore. Crêpes cannot be lumpy. This batter ended up my smoothest yet.

I rinsed out the glass measuring cup and poured the batter inside, for two reasons: 1. to make sure there were no lumps and 2. for better control pouring the batter into the pan.

I took a sliver of real butter and heated it in the skillet over medium high. Once the pan was hot, I swirled the butter in the skillet and, preferably with the skillet not on the heat, poured about 1/8 of a cup batter. I eye-balled it, aiming for a pot about the size of my palm and thinner than a pancake. Then I swirl the pan so I can get it as thin as paper. I returned the pan to the heat. It only takes about 30 seconds for the crêpe to cook. It won't exactly bubble like a pancake, but it will solidfy. I have heard that a crêpe that is appropriately thin will not need to be flipped. But mine need to be flipped for about ten seconds.

Add new butter every third crêpe or so.

When all the crêpes are done, arranged those to serve on plates. Arrange sliced bananas in a line down the center. Add some syrup (because that's what the strawberries became). Roll. Add more syrup and sprinkled powdered sugar.

Midmorning Tea Party

I normally eat my breakfast around 9:30 a.m. This morning, another rainy day, I whipped out the tea set and made a tea party for my little girl.

I diluted my usual homebrewed iced tea for the teapot, prepared a platter of yesterday's homemade biscuits, and scrambled some eggs. I also peeled a pear.

And voilà... One happy little girl who ate two biscuits, a scrambled egg and a pear.

PB&J Taster's Platter

My daughter has enjoyed a lengthy repetition of PB&J for lunch lately. To spice things up, I made a peanut butter taster's platter for lunch (with a side of corn). I sliced the baguette my husband bought into thin slices and prepared three mini peanut butter sandwiches: JIF Natural Peanut Butter and honey, PB and the American classic of grape Smucker's jelly, and PB and organic raspberry fruit spread (that shockingly has vitamin A & C). The preschooler selected PB & honey as her favorite and has eaten two PB & honey sandwiches, the two others, the corn, and a glass of chocolate soy milk and is now on a glass of water.

Brought to you by the letter P: Pork with raspberry sauce

I didn't intend it, but dinner became "brought to you by the letter P."

I got home from work and prepped some peas by thawing them in the microwave. Then I sliced about two tablespoons of fresh spearmint from my garden and added it to the peas. I stirred it up, covered it, and set it in the fridge. (Great picnic item, originally from Eileen Breslin's vegan cooking class at Northampton Community College.) Serve the peas chilled.

Then I made some green tea, also with loads of spearmint and poured it over ice in my Princess House glasses. I also got out a bottle of Italian sparkling raspberry wine. I even allowed by daughter to have a small taste for a special post-birthday toast. That was our apéritif.

First course was canned pears (packed in juice, juice reserved for recipe) with some of the sauce from the meat, served over yogurt. (See below for recipe.)

The pork recipe is a variation of Pork Chops with Raspberry Sauce from Allrecipes.com.

Pork with Raspberry Sauce, Angel-style

4 thin pork chops
Mysterious herb seasoning packet from Aldi spinach rigatoni

pinch of fresh ground course sea salt

pinch four-color peppercorns

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 tablespoons juice, reserved from a can of pears

4 tablespoons champagne vinegar, a gift from my mom at Christmas

3.5 tablespoons Chambord

almost 1/4 cup organic raspberry jam from Wegmans

1. Preheat oven to 200. In a skillet, melt butter and olive oil.

2. Combine seasonings, salt and pepper. Rub on pork.

3. Cook pork in skillet on medium, about four minutes per side.

4. Place on plate and keep warm in oven.

5. In warm skillet, with meat juices still present, combine the juice, jam, vinegar and Chambord. Cook until the sauce reduces significantly. It will thicken when it cools. I put about have the sauce on the meat right away and left in in the oven as I served the first course. Then when I served, the sauce had thickened and I placed more on each.

My daughter ate TWO.

For dessert, we had some pumpkin roll. I didn't make that, Gayle brought it for my birthday. Her friend makes it.

That's a wrap

If it looks like I've slacked off on this blog, I have and I haven't. I have, because there are less entries than usual. I haven't because with all this illness, we've barely been eating. We've been drinking gallons of orange juice though.

We literally did not have dinner last night because we went to a party for one of my afterschool program and my daughter ate her weight in celery, carrots, Oreos and Cheetos. But I considered that a wash because she had been eating all day. Generic peanut butter crunch and soy milk for breakfast; Herbatussin tea with milk and honey, one section of a Nature Valley granola bar, four peach halves and chocolate soy milk for a second breakfast; yogurt and graham crackers for lunch #1; and then a second lunch with me...

For a second lunch, I had made myself a wrap. I used the leftover lunchmeat ham and spread it on a tortilla shell. I sprinkled mozzarella on it and heated it. Then I put on some spicy brown mustard and rolled it (and gave 1/3 to my daughter). She devoured hers and asked for more, but we had eaten all the ham.

For lunch today, my husband took the last of the turkey (this is all the Aldi meat my in-laws forgot here... I wouldn't buy it because the ingredients list is all preservatives and even includes high fructose corn syrup, but I'm way too wired not too waste food). He added ranch to his, cheddar cheese and slices of apple, along the lines of my funky turkey sandwiches last week. I asked that he swap my ranch for the raspberry jam.

Turkey and Brie sandwiches

The flood has turned our regular eating habits upside down. Subway, boxed mac and cheese, pie for breakfast. Nutrition has fallen to the wayside.

Today for lunch I packed potato chips from Aldi. Cheap-o lunchmeat my inlaws bought on white bread... Which I dressed up...

How does this sound?

White Italian Bread, with soy mayonnaise. Cheap turkey, some brie, some organic spring mix and a thin layer of organic raspberry jam from Wegmans.

Brioche, part three

When I got up today and made it into the kitchen... (It was almost seven by then). I shaped and cooked the brioche.

I make my brioche small, so I get three loaves like the ones in the photo. The photo with Triple Fruit Jam is a loaf from the fall, and it's overcooked and not as fluffy as today's. Today's is the loaf with the Jammin' Organic Red Raspberry Jam. (Both from Wegmans.) Now, I would love some Brie with this warm brioche, but circumstances did not permit some Brie today. Sigh.

Shannon took a small, misshapen baguette with her to her grandmother's last night. It was her first attempt so it did not look French. But it tasted wonderful and from what I hear, her family devoured it. And they had chili, so it made a good compliment.