The Portable Kitchen

I have a list and I'm trying to decide what to bring with us to Austin. I get to cook Thanksgiving Dinner at my sister's house. My sister is single and hasn't accumulated nearly the kitchen tools and basics I have, many of which I rely on daily, but some just for special occasions. I'm trying to decide what HAS to come with me.

The Kitchen Aid mixer I opted to leave at home. Even though I really want it when it I make the meringue, I think I can get by with her hand mixer if I chill the bowl. So, I'm bringing a metal mixing bowl to be safe.

The giant roasting pan and turkey rack have to come, as well as the large stockpot for brining the turkey. The roasting thermometer is a must as well--overcooked turkey is blech.

Some 13x9 pans (she only has one), a casserole and a deep dish pie pan are in the pile. As well as the ring that goes along the edge of the pie to keep the crust from over-baking.

A potato masher, a baster, a microplane grater (this is the best invention ever; everyone should have one). Should I put my favorite kitchen knife in the box? I am undecided on that (surely she has knives?), but just to be sure I put a knife sharpener in the box. Add to that, some of my favorite silicone spatulas and the gravy whisk (yes, there is a specific whisk for gravy) which are already in the box.

Now spices. Sage, thyme, cornstarch, allspice, nutmeg, cream of tartar--why ask her to buy those things when she'll never use them again?

Most of the recipes are in my head, but I'm making corn pudding, which I don't make very often, so that book is in the box. I already made cornbread this morning, so it's in a gallon bag in the box as well. It just gets crumbled up for the dressing, so no problem if it gets smashed.

And, finally, the egg poacher. My seven year old asked to please bring this as he loves poached eggs and eats them for breakfast and the occasional snack. It's small and it fits nicely inside the giant stockpot. Wondering if there's room in the car for the whirly pop. Over the hurricane, we brought it and used it nearly every day. It's way better than microwave popcorn.

Anyway, it's a whirl of activity and now it's time to decide what kid-stuff needs to come. I wonder what time we'll be ready to leave? And how full will the car be?

Apricot-Mustard Chicken

Lots of food blogging recently. Part of it is I'm in one of my interested-in-the-kitchen moods. Part of it is that I'm a cook who doesn't really follow recipes. I just sort of "do" in the kitchen. This doesn't work for baking, but for producing savory foods, it works great. But, by blogging what I've made, it creates a record, so that when someone asks for a particular dish, I can actually remember what I created.

This recipe is adapted from Saint Louis Days/Saint Louis Nights. I switched some of the ingredients and revised it for the crock pot (slow cooker), but I'll include their original directions at the end for oven cooking. I made it one weeknight this week, and with the four large chicken breasts, it fed us all for two meals, with a chicken-sandwich lunch for me as well.

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 chicken breasts
half of an onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped finely
1/2 cup apricot preserves
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup nonfat yogurt
1 tablespoon cornstarch

In a skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add chicken breasts and onion and garlic. Brown chicken (you are not cooking through, you just want to add color). After the chicken si browned on both sides, transfer that and the vegetables into the crock pot. In a separate bowl, mix the salt, apricot preserves, Dijon mustard and yogurt. You will want to taste it, and adjust the mix according to your taste preferences. Poor the sauce over the chicken. Cook on low heat for about six hours. About 45 minutes before serving, mix the cornstarch with a bit of the warm sauce and then return to the crockpot.

Oven directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take 1/2 cup white flour and 1 teaspoon salt and place in a large ziploc bag. Add chicken pieces a few at a time and shake until chicken is coated with flour mixture. Put 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons melted butter in the bottom of a 13x9 pan. Place chicken on top in a single layer, bone side down and bake for 25 minutes. Remove chicken from oven and spread with the apricot mixture and then bake for 30 more minutes until done. You may add toasted slivered almonds if desired (not for my kids or nut-averse husband).

And finally, I thought I'd share one of my favorite food-themed blogs--the Haphazard Gourmet Girls. Warning, their blog is a lot of fun but can be slightly saucy (in all meanings of the word). It also can be heavy on food politics and policy (which I find interesting). So, don't blame me if you're completely horrified by their posts about the FDA's snail-paced abject failure to address the melamine taint problem.

Ode to Da Sauce

I've lived in Texas long enough to know that barbecue is not what you do in your backyard, that's grilling. Real Texas barbecue is cooked over a (preferably ancient) pit, long and slow. It's beef brisket, but there is room on the pit for chicken, sausage (hot links), and ribs.

People get in fights over what's the best bbq in Texas, but road trips to Lockhart and Llano and Taylor are sacred pilgrimages for a Texas foodie. There's nothing better than pointing to your meat and having the pit master slice it off right there and hand it to you on a piece of butcher paper. You pay by the pound and often the sides are an afterthought. Why would you clutter up your stomach with marginal potato salad or coleslaw when you can fill it up with meat nirvana?

Many pit afficionados forego sauce, seeing no need to cover up the perfectly-smoked meat. But I have to admit I am addicted to good sauce. Any good sauce. I like it Texas smoky, Kansas City spicy and South Carolina mustardy. But I love, love, love the North Carolina-style vinegar sauce.

Why else would I have slow cooked pulled pork today (besides the fact that you can cook a cheapo-cut of pork shoulder and eat on it for days)? Most Texas folks don't think pork measures up and doesn't even deserve to be called barbecue. So, here's my little secret. I make pulled pork just so I can make a batch of that delicious, scrumptious North Carolina vinegar sauce. I make it with the pan drippings, vinegar, some spices, pepper, a touch of hot sauce and a little ketchup. And although the smell when you get that vinegar going is a bit, uh, cough-inducing, the payoff is worth it.

Just between us, I'll even admit to putting (lots of) extra sauce on my plate just so I have to sop it up with some more bread.

Thanksgiving Menu

So this year, we're going to Austin for Thanksgiving. My sister just moved to Austin in May, so this is our first opportunity to visit her for the holidays. My parents are coming down and she's invited some of her friends over as well.

She's single and hasn't really had the opportunity to cook as much as I have, so I'm the designated chief chef for the occasion. I'm using her kitchen, which is much fancier than mine, and I'm looking forward to an oven that can hold more than one thing at a time, unlike in my state-of-the-art-circa-1955 kitchen.

I don't usually cook Thanksgiving dinner. I have in the past, but for the last few years, we've traveled (for fun, not to visit anyone) over Thanksgiving and we've eaten out. When we have Thanksgiving with my mother-in-law, I am in charge of the dressing, because as my mother in law points out, they don't make dressing in South America and she doesn't cook it right.

In fact, Thanksgiving with my mother-in-law is often amusing, as she realizes that she needs to produce a turkey, but for my American-born-and-bred tastes, she often misses on some of the sides. We'll have something weird, like rice, which is a perfectly good dish, but has no place on the Thanksgiving table, in my opinion. There have been years when we've had Thanksgiving with them, and I've cooked a whole additional Thanksgiving meal at home the next Sunday, just so it'll feel right to me (although I usually just do a breast then, not a full turkey).

Really, the sides on the table are our cultural legacies from our families, aren't they? There's a lot of regionality and family history represented on the Thanksgiving table, from which pies are made to what goes in your dressing, and from whether you stuff the bird or cook the dressing separately. When you form your own family, you blend your respective food traditions, which is kind of beautiful if you think about it.

Both my parents are from the South, so we have to have cornbread dressing (with sausage). We love it, and I usually make it for Christmas day too (that's the meal that I usually cook every year, with both my family and my husband's family and anyone else hanging around in attendance). My mom and my sister love the cranberry jelly from the can (the pure jelly), so we serve that sliced right along with the homemade cranberry sauce I make. My kids like the canned stuff better too, but I love the homemade sauce. Especially the next day on a turkey-and-dressing sandwich. It's one of my favorite parts of the Thanksgiving meal.

So, to that end, here is my menu for Thanksgiving.

Turkey
Cornbread Dressing
Corn Pudding (this is so rich and sinfully delicious. A spoonful is enough)
Mashed Potatoes
Asparagus
Salad
Parker House Rolls
Cranberries

Butterscotch-pecan pie
Lemon meringue pie
Pumpkin cake

I'm curious what HAS to be on your Thanksgiving table. What sides do you look forward to each year?

In this economy

My husband is a manager of a medium-sized division of a much bigger company. Over the last week, about 30% of the employees have come up to him or his deputy to ask about the security of their jobs. Of course, everyone is concerned about the economic situation (both macro and micro) leading up to this holiday season. The news he can share is partially reassuring--the company is not planning to cut personnel, but raises will, quite simply, suck this year. They won't keep up with inflation, and of course, health care expenses will rise as well. That translates to less money in ones pocket, but at least its a job, and a fairly secure one at that.

Personally, I'd rather them do that than lay off people as many of the employees are people who have worked with my husband for years and years. We know their spouses and kids. They are more than just numbers.

That news, combined with the massive hit our college funds and retirement savings have taken, has led me to feel somewhat less secure financially. I've made a commitment to building up our cash padding. They tell you to have six months' worth of expenses in cash and we're nowhere near that. That is my goal for the first four months of 2009--to get closer to that six months' worth of cash on hand.

So, I'm reworking our family budget accordingly. I think I'm going to cut out a planned spring break trip. I have reservations at the Grand Canyon (made a year in advance) and had not bought plane tickets (they were $600 each). Now they're $300, which is darn good, but I don't feel like I want to spend that money. For the first time, we're not swapping gifts with my husband's family and I've made a strict allocation for how much to spend on the kids this season. My husband and I don't usually buy each other gifts, but we make a large purchase for the household together and that could be eliminated (although I'm not sure how much longer my fridge will keep going). We were looking at a private middle school for our older son, and I think we've decided that's not financially feasible. I'm trying not to cut out my charitable contributions, but that's a possible area for some savings if I feel desperate.

In little ways, in daily expenses, I've already cut down. I no longer buy Starbucks coffee or iced tea. I try to limit eating out to one meal a week, plus one weekend morning of donuts or kolaches. I buy cheaper cuts of meat and make sure to use leftovers. I'm going to the library to borrow books instead of buying them. I've refused to renew magazine subscriptions. I think we're going to eliminate the movie channels on our cable package (but I'm keeping my cable and Internet service). I know there's probably other ways to save. Any other suggestions for creative cost-savings from blog readers? Post them in the comments and we'll help each other out.

Now, do you think I could ask my kids to quit growing so that I wouldn't have to buy new jeans for them?

Fun games

These are fun physics games. My kids love them and they learn about things like angles and levers as they play.

fantastic contraption

assembler

splitter

For Tai

There's a picture I don't let myself look at all that often of the two of us. It was taken in October of 2000, and there we are -- pregnant with our babies at the same time and laughing at the antics of our older kids. Except for the slightly green pallor I'm sporting, you can't really tell with me. But Tai was three months further along and her belly was obviously swelling with baby number three. Almost exactly three years after this picture was taken, at the age of 37, we buried her. A mother of three children, ages 2 to 6.

In the photo, just as you can't yet tell that I'm pregnant, you can't see the cancer that is eating Tai. An estrogen-fed monster of a breast cancer found the fuel it needed to storm and invade from the hormones of that pregnancy. When her youngest was three and a half months old, she found the lump. Already that cancer had invaded her chest wall and her lymph nodes. They could successfully beat it back for a while, but not long. It was just such an aggressive form of cancer--I honestly believe that early detection would not have helped--this cancer (from growing up in an industrial, toxic chemical soup of a town she believed) was going to take over and the result would have been the same.

I've been thinking of Tai a lot this fall. On the fifth anniversary of her death, I cried and cried and cried. I don't let myself do that much, because the situation is not anything I can affect or help.

Tai was the glue in her family. She was incredibly vain and frivolous--with a beautiful face and a bit of a princess complex. She loved shopping and goofing off and she hid her spending from her husband, who was so busy working he rarely saw. She indulged and indulged her two boys and as a result, they were wild kids--swinging from chandeliers and all--little tornadoes in motion. I don't think I ever saw her discipline them. She gave generously of herself and her love though; when you were around her, everything was fun.

Their dad of course was the opposite. The absent disciplinarian was his role. He seemed emotionally removed and spare with his love. He decided at some point in her illness that he was going to cut her off from her old friends. They moved into a big fancy house in a neighborhood where they knew no one, instead of staying in their smaller house here in the neighborhood where there were friends all around.

Part of it was her--vain girl that she was, she didn't want people to see her hairless and ill. But the driving force was him. I don't know what his emotional baggage and scars are, but they created a complex person who sees everyone around him not as separate individuals, but as a reflection of him. It took me a long time to work it out, but one day I realized. Her illness somehow reflected badly on him (he is a physician) and he didn't want others to see.

For a while, we managed to see her anyway. When she was feeling well enough, we'd meet for lunch or one fateful day I snuck up to the hospital when I knew he wasn't there. Instinctively, I knew that was the last time I would see her, that the illness progression would make future visits not doable. In my own way, I needed to say goodbye and so I did.

I hear glimpses of their lives occasionally, but their father made it plain that there was no real place for her old friends in this life. I know and live near her close relative, who helps take care of the three kids, now 7-12 years old, a lot of the time. So, from time to time, I see her or see the kids. I have other friends whose children are at school with Tai's, so I hear about them that way too. It's been a succession of live-in nannies, impermanent figures who come and go. Their father has girlfriends, and he works just as many hours as he ever did. He believes that providing for his children means making a lot of money, and he put many hours into becoming well-trained. His career comes first.

I think of my friend coming to the realization that she was going to die and knowing that she was leaving her kids with someone who could not possibly care for their emotional wellbeing. He is incapable of putting someone else ahead of him, and that's what parenting is. You know instinctively that adolescence is going to be trouble for those kids. It breaks my heart that they won't have a true memory of their mother, who loved them with all her heart. I just hope that some of the strands of love, some of the early seeds she planted, still rest within them.

And that's why I don't let myself look at that photograph very much or allow myself to think about her too often. I can't help those kids and that haunts me.

Product shrinkage

I wanted to make pumpkin bread this morning. And I did (see recipe below). I know folks have been ranting about hidden product shrinkage...when companies reduce the size of their container so they don't have to charge more. But they are effectively charging you more because you get less. Well, let me add my voice. Do you know that pretty much every single pumpkin recipe in the universe calls for two cups (16 oz) of canned pumpkin? Yep, at least every one I found in my highly unscientific search this morning. Do you know why? Because a 16-ounce can has been the standard, at least as long as I can remember.

But do you know what you'll find if you buy one can of pumpkin now? 15 ounces. That's right. A can of Libby's is no longer 16 ounces; it's 15. It's not really any big deal, I guess, in that I couldn't taste any difference between 16 ounces and 15 ounces of pumpkin in the recipe, but it just seems "not right." On their website, Libby's has gone and changed their recipes to further camouflage the change -- but I'm telling you, it should be 16 ounces of pumpkin.

Anyway, this is a great recipe. My kids and husband don't like nuts, so they really like the smooth texture of this bread.

Pumpkin Tea Bread

Makes 2 loaves

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups (16 oz) canned pumpkin
• 3 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

In a mixing bowl, blend together sugar and oil; add eggs and pumpkin. In another bowl, blend together dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients gradually into two 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pans, lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.

Bake at 350 degrees until done (about 50 minutes).

Recipe from Saint Louis Days/Saint Louis Nights

Speaking of pumpkin bread, I like this recipe from Libby's too...I'm a big fan of cranberries and buy extra when they're in season and stick them in the freezer to use all year. I have a great cranberry coffee cake recipe that I get a craving for occasionally.

Puzzler Alert

The Simpsons this Sunday will feature the voices of crossword puzzle creator Merl Reagle and puzzle editor to the gods Will Shortz. The theme will revolve around crossword puzzles...and is titled "Homer and Lisa exchange Cross Words." Not only that, but the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle will contain a hidden message relevant to the episode.

That's a lot of cross-promotion. But the big fun is the puzzle geek factor. Every single crossword visible in the episode will have been created by Merl Reagle and I think it'll be fun to see how many references I can catch. I'm an occasional Simpsons watcher, not an addict, but this one will definitely be one to catch if you're a puzzle fiend.

Tending the garden

So, Houston is an odd place garden-wise. When the rest of the country is closing down its gardens, down here October and November are the times to plant and cultivate. You try to get your winter color in by Halloween, so that they have time to grow and get a bit hardy to resist the coming cold snaps. Nothing cheers me up more than seeing the bright faces of pansies and other plants in winter.

But, my garden was frankly a mess. Over the last year, I just had let it go and go and go. There were weeds, trash trees and overgrown foundation plants. Last year I never got any winter color planted and maybe that was the start of my 2008 troubles. This inaction was followed up by not planting any spring or summer color accents and just letting what was there go wild.

It just was hard to figure out where to start, but one Saturday in October, start I did. I began freeing the bed of daylilies from their choking collars of Saint Augustine runners and weeds. Some of their leaves barely had any green color on them, they'd been stifling under that mess. With that bed restored, I moved on to the grasses and the butterfly irises and the kniphofia. I got Paul to help me remove some of the bigger trees and little by little, the beds and order was restored. I don't like rigid lines and formality in the gardens, but these had gotten a little too Darwinian even for me. The plumbago and the esperanza (yellow bells) were trimmed back to semi-recognizable shapes. The holly bushes and foundation plants were trimmed so that you can actually see the windows.

I gave myself a budget of $200 to plant some color. Flats of pansies, alyssum, nasturtium, and dianthus added the splashes of color. Hurricane Ike removed so many branches from the oak tree that my back yard is significantly less shady than normal, so I'm trying some sun-lovers in new spots.

I ripped out some lantana that has never bloomed right since I planted it 4 years ago. I added a butterfly bush (I have never had luck growing these, but I am trying a new, slightly more protected from the summer sun spot), some gayfeather (which I grew successfully for several years in the garden) and some society garlic. I'm a native-plants type of gardener, and I have a local nursery that provides good quality stock. Their plants are probably a little more expensive than the big-box garden shops, but I've always had good results.

Finally, after a fruitless search locally, I ordered some daffodils from a mail-order company. I've been wanting to plant daffys for ages, but I always miss the window. I've ordered pre-chilled bulbs and when they come in December, I'll be interspersing them with the daylilies. This is a combination that works really well in gardens and I hope it'll take in mine. I don't want fussy plants that I have to dig up, so I ordered a cultivar that naturalizes in Houston.

In the back butterfly garden, the Monarch caterpillars are munching the Mexican milkweed. We still have eggs and we've hosted quite a number of caterpillars. I'm not messing with that bed, because the weeds are helping provide cover for the caterpillars from those birds. The kids and I check the caterpillars nearly every day, and we watch them grow from the length of a pinky nail to big and fat and ready to transform.

Anyway, I think restoring my garden was the first step in making things better.

Progress

I realized today that we've been two weeks without losing our power for more than five minutes or so. We even went through a big thunderstorm with our power intact--no blinking clocks making us late this morning. This represents huge progress for us--we were losing power 3 times a week. Just three weeks ago, I had to throw out everything I had re-accumulated in the fridge because we lost power for 18 hours. The grid is seeming more stable.

That's also a good metaphor for me right now. I feel more stable. The election being over helps (man, that was stressful), as does finishing up a brutal fall sports schedule. We've got issues to handle and deal with, but they're no worse than normal (except for that finding a middle school thing). I am starting to feel confident again, less nervous and overwhelmed.

Of course, that confidence doesn't extend to the economy. Watching so much of our carefully saved money go "poof" in the market downturn has made me feel more cautious about spending. So, one small thing I am doing is trying to make sure I cook more and buy less convenience and prepared food and take-out. This last 10 days I've been in a fall mood, as we had a slight nip for a few days (seems to be gone now). So I've been using the slow cooker a lot. In addition to getting to use cheaper cuts of meat in the cooker, flavorful stews and soups are a big hit with almost everyone in the family.

Here's what's in the cooker now--a Moroccan-inspired Tagine. I'll cook some couscous at dinner time to serve the tagine over. I didn't have tomato paste, so I used crushed tomatoes and a bit less chicken broth. And I threw in a chopped red pepper for an extra hit of antioxidants. Everyone likes this dinner. We have a busy day with Odyssey of the Mind practice after school (I'm coaching the younger's team), indoor soccer practice and a middle school tour sandwiched in there. I have more energy in the morning, so it's nice to know that dinner's in the pot already.

Chicken Tagine

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 1 3/4 pounds total), cut into 1-inch pieces

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

4 large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup dried apricots, coarsely chopped

2 cups chicken broth

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons garlic salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

1. In a 6 quart slow cooker, layer chicken, onions, carrots, raisins and apricots.

2. In a medium-size bowl, whisk chicken broth, tomato paste, lemon juice, flour, garlic salt, cumin, ginger, cinnamon and black pepper. Pour over chicken and vegetables.

3. Cook 5 hours on high heat or 8 hours on low.