Kid's Choice: Cornbread

It was Alex's choice this week and all he gave me to go on was cornbread. Well we couldn't eat only cornbread for dinner so I made it's obvious (to me) companion, chili. I found recipes from Everday Food. Alex and I really liked the Mini Cornbread Puddings. Dylan complained about them having corn kernels in them and picked them all out, only to eat them off his plate when he was finished with the bready part of the muffins.

As for the chili, I've had better. It's a good base that could have benefited from a little more spice. I used diced tomatoes with "zesty" jalapeños, but the zest added nothing that I could taste. Alex said he liked it. Dylan ate the avocados and sour cream off the top.....

Baked Chicken with Fennel and Apples

Yesterday, as I was scrolling through past posts, I came to realize that I cook with cheese a lot. Wednesday night in the quiche, Tuesday night in the mashed potatoes, last week in the polenta.....you get the picture. So, while choosing a recipe for last night's dinner I purposely set out to find something with no melted, cheesy goodness.

Another goal was to find something that didn't take much time to prepare because I also had to make Shortbread for my third grade son's class. They are finishing up their geography unit on Scotland. I was given a specific recipe, I hope they have nice cold cartons of milk to wash those cookies down!

I found this recipe in the November 2009 issue of Everyday Food. Yum, yum, yum, I thought this was delicious. The fennel, shallots, and sage leaves were amazing coated in all the juices from the chicken. The only change I would make is to cook the apples longer and cut them into smaller pieces.

My eldest loved the chicken and apples, the other stuff got pushed around on his plate. As for my youngest, not a great night for him. Let's just say his behavior at the dinner table was less than exemplary and leave it at that!

Beer-Braised Sausages with Warm Potato Salad

A perfect one pot meal to make on a night when big wet snowflakes, that melt as soon as they touch the ground, fall from the sky. Oh well, at least dinner was good. I love recipes that have you cook everything in one big pot, there are less dishes to do after dinner!

The flavors in this recipe scream Germany to me, so I was surprised it called for sweet Italian sausages and not bratwurst. It is noted that other sausages such as turkey or chicken work well also. I know the kids like Italian sausage so I stuck with that.

This recipe is from the March 2010 Everyday Food (not sure why it is not online yet.....)

2 T. extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian sausages

1 meduim yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced

12 oz pale ale beer

1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes, halved

coarse salt and ground pepper

1 T. red-wine vinegar

2 T. chopped fresh parsley

In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat 1 T. olive oil over medium high heat. Add sausages and cook until brown on all sides, about 8 minutes. Add onion and cook until softened, about 7 minutes. Add beer, potatoes, and 2 cups water; season with salt and pepper and press to submerge potatoes in cooking liquid. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

Transfer sausages to serving platter and keep warm. In a large bowl, stir together 1 T. oil, vinegar, and parsley. With a slotted spoon transfer potato mixture to dressing (reserve cooking liquid) and toss to combine.

Return pot to high heat; boil cooking liquid until reduced to 1 cup, about 12 minutes. Return sausages to pot and cook until heated through, 2 minutes. Place sausages and dressed potatoes on serving platter; drizzle half the sauce over top. Serve with remaining sauce alongside.

I made two changes, one that was unintentional. First I had dill in my herb garden that needed to be harvested so we chopped it up and added it to the dressing for the potatoes, a great addition. My unintended change was the sauce. The picture in the magazine shows a brothy sauce around the food on the plate. I must of reduced it more than called for, because I got a deep brown, thick sauce, that was delicious.

Only my youngest joined us for dinner last night. He loved the sausage, but was not too crazy about the potatoes. The other was sick, poor thing is thankfully on the mend today!

Dinner Last Night: Technical Difficulties

Our meal last night looked exactly like the picture above, I, however, did not take that picture. Clumsy me, broke my camera lens on Wednesday night. The second one in a year, I'm starting to think I don't deserve to own a nice digital SLR. After a trip to the camera shop, where I learned repair cost almost as much as a new lens, I thought maybe this is a blessing. I was able to order a lens that is more suited to photographing food and it should be here later today!

Back to dinner, Salmon with Green Beans and Lemon Zest. I highly recommend this meal. The salmon was perfectly cooked and infused with flavor from the lemon zest and capers. My husband, who is not crazy about salmon, thought this was delicious. I served it over saffron rice. Once all the capers were out of the way, my kids ate the fish without complaint. I call that a small success!

Image from marthastewart.com