Today finally feels like the first real day of summer for me. June was such hectic month with Eva’s graduation, birthday parties, the end of school and the big family reunion. Just as our house guests were departing, I too got on a plane to Florida for a week long business trip and Eva and Sophia took off for a trip with their dad to the East Coast. Now that we are all back I feel like we can settle in and relax.

The kids were still asleep at noon today  when I left the house to go get my hair done. When I returned two hours later, Paul had put all of them to work  in the yard. In his words he had “organized his work crew.” They were weeding, removing mulch and cleaning out flower beds. Surprisingly, they were fairly good natured about it. When they were finished, the yard looked great. I made them some lunch and all  five kids sat at the kitchen counter eating, talking and laughing. They were working together, cooperating and seeming to have a good time as well. They were taking pride in their home which pleased me immensely.

This put me in a nesting mood so I made some soup. Paul cleaned out the freezer last night and found a ham bone stashed inside and I hunted around in the back of the cupboard for some dried beans I knew were in there. I threw it all  in a pot of water and let it simmer all afternoon and the smells are still wafting through the house. Yum.

Later in the evening, I asked Sophia if she would like to make brownies with me and she replied, “How about we make Mud Puddle cake instead?”  Great suggestion since Mud Puddle cake is much less fattening and super easy to make. I used to make it all the time when my girls were small because you can mix all the ingredients in one pan and the kids can stir ’til their hearts are content. It’s dairy free too. For a recipe of my Muddle Puddle cake click on my Just Imaginate blog. (Scroll down the page, it’s the 5th recipe down.)

I better go check and see if it’s ready.

Joel Schwartzberg, my newfound cyber friend  is a divorced dad who is  remarried to a woman who by virtue of  her marriage to him, is now a stepmom. He has written a book The 40-Year-Old Version: Humoirs of a Divorced Dad which I plan to read and review later this week. In the meantime, check out his essay titled What Remarried Dads Owe Their Stepmom Wives that appeared this week on the Huffington Post. If you have ever thought, “Oh my god, what have I gotten myself into?” by all means, read this post. I  have to say his words of wisdom and insight came to me at a time when I needed them the most.

This is a great cold-winter-rainy-day recipe.

Ingredients:
Filling:
1 small onion (I love to use shallots too.)
Handful of mushroom, sliced
2 cups cooked chicken
1 10 oz. package of frozen mixed vegetables like peas and carrots.
2 cans (10 3/4 oz. each) of condensed cream of chicken soup.
Note:Can also use cream of mushroom and cream of celery soup.
Sometimes I use three cans if I want my casserole to be creamier.
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

Biscuit topping:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. For filling, combine onion and mushrooms in large, microwave safe casserole dish. Cover; microwave on high 2 minutes or until softened, stirring halfway through cooking time. Add chicken, frozen vegetables, soup and pepper to onion mixture. Mix thoroughly and bake 10-15 minutes until bubbly around the edges. In the meantime, make the topping. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, combine egg, milk and oil. Add to dry ingredients and mix until just moistened. Remove casserole from oven. Drop tablespoons of topping evenly over chicken mixture. Bake 25-30 minutes or until topping is golden brown. Serve with cranberry sauce or apple sauce.

Everywhere I go in my house, even in my car, I can look down at any given moment and see an orthodontic rubber band. You know those little 1/4 inch bands that most kids with braces have to wear at some point? With five kids in braces, we have a lot of those things lying around. Each time I find one, I can’t help but be reminded of the cost of raising five kids. Some people get excited when they pay off their student loans or their mortgage, I danced a jig of joy when I made my last orthodontist payment. Now to pay for college, car insurance, weddings… That’s another story. The kids are starting to get jobs to help pay the way a bit, and we are all doing our part to trim expenses as much as possible. Here are some strategies I have used lately that have helped cut a chunk off of our monthly budget.

First, I only shop at Marshalls. I took the kids there when we were in New Jersey this summer and we could not believe the deals. All the girls got stylin’ gladiator sandals for under $10. Cheryl found an O’Neill bathing suit for $7 and Sophia scored an American Eagle wool pea coat for $24. I told the kids, “From now on, that is where we will shop.” No more over priced mall designer stores. After all, why pay more when you can pay less?

Secondly, I canceled the house keeper. It killed me to do it, but I just could not justify the expense anymore. Now I pay the kids a small amount of chore money to clean their rooms and bathrooms and pick up the rest of the house, which is something they should have been doing all along.  I had justified the expense in the past because I was working full time and the kids were so busy with sports and homework. Now, we set aside two Saturdays a month to give the house a thorough cleaning and the money we save can go into a vacation account or toward some  other house hold expense.

Cook from scratch. If the kids want cookies they can make them themselves. Ditto for pizza and other snacks. Here are some recipe ideas from my Just Imaginate blog.

Make gifts and cards. This holiday season I plan to make as many as possible. I am starting now so that I have plenty of time.  Here are some homemade gift ideas also from my Just Imaginate blog.

Cooking/baking and making crafts  is a wonderful way to spend time together as a family. It is entertaining. It’s relaxing and it teaches kids the value of saving money.

For those of you who were anxious to hear, Paul did finally make it home yesterday after he got stranded at a diner with no gas and no money to pay for his lunch. Thankfully, his business partner was 20 minutes behind him on the same highway and met up with him to pay for his lunch and buy him a tank of gas. Otherwise, I would have had to drive down to meet him.

He was pretty bone-weary and bedraggled when he got home. I had dinner (shrimp scampi) and wine waiting. We sat at our outdoor fireplace and relaxed. He loved the new golf shoes I got him for his birthday.

RECIPE FOR SHRIMP SCAMPI (for two)

Ingredients:

3/4 lb. large shrimp or prawns, peeled and deveined leaving tails on

3 T good olive oil

2 T dry white wine (for drinking and marinating shrimp)

kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened

several gloves minced garlic

1/4 cup minced shallots

3 T  minced fresh parsley

2 tsp. minced fresh rosemary

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 tsp. grated lemon zest

2 T fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 egg yolk

2/3 cup panko bread crumbs

lemon wedges for garnish

Place shrimp in large bowl and toss with wine, olive oil and dash of kosher salt and pepper.  In a separate bowl, mash the softened butter with the garlic, shallots, parsley, rosemary, red pepper flakes, lemon zest, lemon juice, egg yolk, panko and dash of salt and pepper.

Arrange shrimp in a single, circular layer in a round baking or gratin dish placing the tails in the center of the dish. Pour the remaining marinade over the shrimp and then spread the butter mixture evenly over the shrimp. Bake at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes. If you like, you can place the dish under the broiler for 1 minute to brown. Be careful to watch though. Don’t want to burn it. Serve with crusty bread.

Paul and I had the house  to ourselves this past weekend. The kids were with their other parents. Because we work together and spend so much time talking about work, we made a concerted effort to focus on topics outside of the office and enjoy our time alone. And we did. We relaxed. We  cooked gourmet meals, did some  wine tasting, sat by the outdoor fireplace, watched a movie, attended a Greek festival downtown, went on a hike and practiced putting at the local golf course. The latter was most fun. There is a gorgeous wooded park near our house with wonderful hiking trails and a golf course at the end of the road. We decided to take our putters and walk through the woods to see how many stray golf balls we could find. (Eight. ) It was an adventure. While we were putting we pictured ourselves retired and golfing at fancy resorts and it gave us something to dream about. That was on Sunday afternoon. Our time was cut short because Paul had to leave at 5:00pm to drive to L.A. He didn’t want to go and I sure didn’t want him to go either. He was driving down so I baked and prepared a care package for him to take with him. It is my way of being with him. Roast beef  and pepper Jack cheese sandwiches on ciabatta bread, grapes, homemade oatmeal/chocolate chip/walnut cookies and apple breakfast bread. If I can’t be with him, at least I know he is well fed.  I miss him.

Here are the recipes for the ROAD TRIP FOOD.

CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP OATMEAL COOKIES

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed light brown sugar (0r dark)

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

3 cups quick cooking oats

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar ,eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl combine  the flour, salt, baking soda. Stir into the creamed mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips, walnuts and oats. Drop by heaping teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake in 325 degree oven for 12 minutes. Cool on baking sheet for five minutes, then transfer to cooling racks.

APPLE BREAKFAST BREAD

Nothing lasts long in our house so I doubled this one. This one smells like Christmas.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1/2  cup white sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

2 apples- peeled and chopped

In a large bowl cream butter and sugars. Add eggs. Mix together. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cloves. Stir into creamed mixture until blended. Fold in apples. Pour into lightly greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Serve warm with butter or cream cheese.

To know me well is to know that I love cake. My family used to joke that all the early photos of me were of me licking icing off my fingers.  Perhaps that is because the only time my parents took photos was on birthdays. Still, cake and I have had a long love affair.

I recently discovered this great blog called  Piece of Cake Decorating. They offer custom made cakes as well as directions on how to make your own. My favorite is the slumber party cake, a variation of which I have made for my own kids. Check it out. Great fun.

A reader named Shelly recently commented on my blog post Ocean Ditty New Dirty about how much she loves crab cakes. She is from Maryland, of course. Whenever readers comment on my blog and they have a blog too, I always check it out. Shelley’s is one you should read too. It is called, I’m Still Standing. She writes about her special needs child to offer insight into what her life is like. She also loves crab cakes and has a great recipe for them. Click here to read all about her.

The 16 days that I was away from my husband while on vacation with the kids gave him an opportunity to realize just what an indulged, pampered, doted on man he is. I’m not kidding. He’s spoiled and he knows it. Because Paul works so hard both at the office and at home (working on our never ending house projects), I have tried to make his life as comfortable as possible by basically waiting on him hand and foot. I make him a hot breakfast every morning, pack him a hearty, tasty lunch every day and serve up a gourmet home cooked meal most every night. I also buy all of his clothes and do all of his laundry. In addition I  am  his sounding board for him to clear his head and blow off steam over the day’s events, usually work related problems, which he  shares  with me while I am giving him a full body massage. So you can just imagine how much he missed me.

Ours is a relationship that is very close. The saying that love is better the second time around is especially true for us because we appreciate each other so much more. We’ve been through divorce. We know what the dark side of relationships can be like so we really cherish each other. So when I was reunited with my darling husband, I pulled out all the stops. Steak and eggs for breakfast, meat stuffed sandwiches for lunch and this dinner below that I just kind of whipped up that Paul said was the best meal he has ever eaten. I’m going to call it:

GETTING REACQUAINTED CHICKEN

Ingredients are approximate.

1 lb. chicken cutlets pounded to 1/4 inch thickness

flour for dredging

2 cups assorted mushrooms (I used a mixture of wood ear, shitake and porchini.)

2 shallots chopped

1 heaping T of capers

8 oz. creme fraiche

1/4 cup stoneground mustard

good quality olive oil (I used lemon infused from my friend at Coeur d’Olive.)

Dredge the chicken cutlets in flour and saute in pan in olive oil until browned on both sides and cooked through. Set aside on warm platter.  Saute mushrooms and shallots in same pan until browned and a little crispy. Remove and place on same platter as chicken. Over low heat, place creme fraiche and mustard in pan and whisk until smooth. Add chicken and mushroom and onion mixture, coat chicken with mixture, toss in the capers and  cover and let steam for 5-10 minutes and serve with pasta and crusty bread. The sauce is great on pasta. We had two types of ravioli. One kind  filled with the porcini mushrooms and the other with asparagus. Delish. Pair with a dry/fruity white wine.

I made this recipe for my vegetarian daughters and my carnivorous sons loved it too.  It has a robust flavor that satisfies a hearty appetite. Read the rest of this entry »