This week I adopted two more tips from Laurie David's Family Dinner book. I took a small step toward organization and I (eeek!) invited a guest over for dinner.
To make my pantry more navigable, I had to do something to get rid of the various bags and boxes scattered about. I was embarrassed to realize I had 4 different boxes of whole wheat organic couscous ranging from 3/4 full to a handful of grains barely covering the bottom of the box. Couscous was not the anomaly. Lentils, rice, quinoa - multiple packages haphazardly strewn about the pantry in varying degrees of fullness. How does this happen? Easily, actually. If I see couscous on a recipe list, I put it on my grocery list and purchase it. I may or may not actually check the pantry first to see if I already have it (if I end up with extra, I'll use it, right?). And if I check for it, I may or may not actually see that I have it (my pantry is dark, cavernous, and completely disorganized). Before you know it - a pantry full of multiple packages of the same ingredient.
I needed to consolidate my dry goods in containers. A couple months ago, I probably would have gone to Target and purchased a bunch of pretty glass containersat $10 a pop. Fortunately, I have now read Laurie David's book and she sings the praises of mason jars. I got a pack of 12 quart-sized jars at my local grocery store for about $10. I took a Sharpie and wrote the name of the ingredient on each jar. I suppose if you were being really good, you could put a sticker with the date on the jar too so you know your couscous hasn't gone bad. I'm taking baby steps so I skipped that part. Dry goods go fast enough in my house that I'm not particularly concerned. I ended up with pretty jars of rice, couscous, steel-cut oatmeal, lentils (I just put them all in one jar, so my jar is a pretty rainbow mix of red, green, and brown lentils), wheat berries, quinoa, buckwheat groats, almonds, and a few other items. Instantly more beautiful and more organized. Another advantage is that I can now shop in the bulk section without having a pantry full of white plastic bags of unidentifiable contents. If I see I'm running low on lentils, I can just pick up a scoop or two on my next trip to Whole Foods and dump it in the jar when I come home. It is much less expensive to buy from the bulk section than buying prepackaged goods. And let's not forget that less packaging is better for the environment.
Laurie David also encourages dinner guests to keep conversation lively and family members on their best behavior. Having guests opens your cooking up for judgment, though. I have some seriously "foodie" friends and did not want to fall flat, so I employed a two-pronged strategy. First, I invited my friend Amy who I knew I could count on to be non-judgmental and gracious even if dinner was mediocre. Second, I went with tried and true recipes. No experimenting with new food when I have dinner guests. My "go to" dishes were spinach and rice soup (Peter Berley) and tarragon chicken (Nigella Lawson).
I can't easily find a link to the soup recipe. But it is so good I'll re-type it here. This is my slightly-modified version. First puree 12 oz of organic baby spinach with 1 cup of water. Then heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan. Saute about a cup of chopped onions (I buy them pre-chopped at the grocery store) until soft. Then add about a cup of chopped organic carrots, 1/3 cup of rice, 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds, 3 minced garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon of salt, and saute for another minute or two. Add the pureed spinach and 3 cups of water and simmer covered for about 15 minutes. Add 1/4 cup chopped dill and simmer for another 5 minutes. Finish it off with the juice of one lemon. It is so yummy! The hint of dill and lemon really make a mouth-watering tangy soup that tastes nothing like spinach. The rice and carrots add a nice chewy texture. The pureed spinach results in an inviting green color. It is loaded with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, but you wouldn't know it from the taste.
The tarragon chicken is actually the reason I bought Nigella's cook book in the first place. You can find the recipe here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/tarragon-chicken-recipe/index.html. I initially heard about it on NPR and ordered the book from Amazon that same day. The book did not disappoint and neither did this recipe. I'm sad that I never cooked with vermouth before getting Nigella's book. It adds a wonderfully dry flavor that stands out more than adding white wine. Even better, unlike white wine, the bottle will keep in the pantry for quite some time. (The drawback of course, is that you don't have the left over bottle white wine to drink as you cook.) The combination of garlic infused olive oil, scallions, vermouth, tarragon, and heavy cream makes a sinfully delicious sauce that I could eat by itself with a spoon. It is delightfully creamy, salty, and rich. Because it is made of heavy cream, however, it is best to restrain yourself and just spoon it over the chicken breasts (I actually use chicken tenders - organic and free range, of course).
At 6:15, Annika, Swede, my mother in law, and I sat down to dinner with our first family dinner guest. Just as Laurie David promised, Amy's presence made the dinner conversation lively and kept everyone on their best behavior. Annika was in rare form, even giving a detailed answer to Amy about what she did in school that day. When I ask, I usually get a blank stare and shrug followed by "nothing." Amy, on the other hand, got a five minute speech about the various works she does at school (Montessori students do "works"), some being challenging, some being fun, none of them working if you don't put them away with all their pieces. Poor Amy didn't get a word in edgewise after opening the door for Annika to talk about herself. And Annika was too distracted being the center of attention to find something she didn't like about the food. Even Astrid tried to join in the conversation, happily shrieking and squealing from her bouncer a couple feet away. I believed Amy when she told me she liked the food.
By the time we finished eating, Annika had decided that she would put on special show for Amy. Her "sea creature" show consisted of her prancing across the TV room doing various things with her hands to represent different animals. For instance, as a whale she held her hands out beside her at her waist and slowly ambled across the floor. Then as a shark she clasped her hands behind her back and shimmied across the same area. We witnessed all forms of sea creatures and then Annika moved on to a gymnastics show. It took all of 30 seconds for her gymnastics show to turn into a tearful scene when she fell on her knee while trying to do something that looked like the running man.
Annika grabbed an ice pack and retreated to her bedroom to watch a DVD before bed. Amy and I poured ourselves some wine and watched The Biggest Loser. About an hour later, Swede showed off his own culinary skills by making us a bowl of popcorn (popped in a bit of oil on the stove, not in the microwave). All in all a good start to entertaining dinner guests.
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