Guest Post: Easter Turkey Dinner

24. May 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: Food · Tags: , ,

Today’s recipe comes from a special guest blogger; my older brother, Philip. He writes from Astoria, NY.

Ok, this is my first ever try at food blogging! A few weeks back, I had both my brothers over for Easter. Since I went away for school, and then moved to NYC after school, I haven’t had any immediate family around for Easter in a long time. This year, my two brothers are living just hours away from me – one up in Boston and one down in DC. Both cities are 4 – 5 hours away – practically next door by Midwestern driving standards! So I thought it would be fun to have them join their older brother for Easter weekend.

The only downside to that was it meant I would have to come up with an Easter meal. I do cook – somewhat regularly, even – but it’s usually small and or simple, enough to feed me and my wife, relying heavily on stove-top recipes where I can watch the food cooking and make sure nothing terrible is happening to it.

Fajitas, eggs, stir-fries, or other reliable stove-top standbys didn’t feel like they were quite up to Easter dinner standards, though. No, for Easter dinner, I needed something substantial. Something baked.

I decided to go with turkey breast. My office is in midtown, so after work on Friday I wandered down to the new Trader Joe’s on 22nd street to see what I could find. I was afraid I would be too late to find anything good – the Friday before Easter felt like I was cutting it awfully close for picking up supplies. I was in luck, though, and found a half-turkey breast, organically grown. There were only going to be four of us, so a half-breast felt like it’d be the perfect amount of food, especially once we included sides.

The organic was a nice touch too. When it comes to organic food, I take a mixed approach. For some certain foods, I’ve found it really does make a difference in quality. Our neighborhood supermarket offers organic apples, and I have to admit they are far and away tastier than the regular apples. On other foods, though, I feel the organic label is often more a marketing ploy than anything. The turkey-breast was a good price, though, and felt nice and firmly-springy to the touch, so in this case I didn’t have any qualms with the organic label. Also, when you’re roasting, your meat better be good quality, because while you can ruin a nice cut of meat, you can’t improve a poor one.

For the side I decided to go with mashed potatoes, a favorite of mine, and my wife helped out by making a green-bean casserole.

I don’t have the green bean casserole recipe handy so I’ll skip it, but the mashed potatoes are simplicity itself:

  • Scrub your potatoes under running water
  • Quarter them with a big knife
  • Stick in a pot of water (enough to cover them by about an inch) for 20 – 40 minutes (for five good sized potatoes, it was closer to 40 minutes). You can test for doneness by poking a fork into the thickest part – it should feel soft but have a bit of resistance, like a slightly overripe fruit.
  • Drain. Mash, leaving the skin on! Add a bit of milk, then butter, salt, and pepper to taste.

Mashed potatoes are a personal preference. Our Joy of Cooking recommends using a potato ricer, but I like my potatoes hearty and a bit chunky, so skins and a simple mashing give me the results I like. We have an actual masher now, but I’ve also had good results simply using a large fork.

That was the easy part. The turkey, on the other hand, made me a bit nervous as I very rarely use the oven. This was my first attempt at roasting something. Going back to the reliable Joy of Cooking, the steps were:

  • Preheat the oven to 325
  • Brush the bird with melted butter
  • Stick in the oven

Having done this once, it’s hard to remember what I was so nervous about. It’s not really that much more complicated than making mashed potatoes. It would have been trickier with a full bird, as dark and light meats can cook differently, but for a half-breast, nothing too tricky.

The only hard part was the timing. The bird needs to get to a temperature of 165 to be ready (a cheap meat thermometer from Amazon works fine for checking). The rule of thumb is around 20 minutes per pound . I suspect that our oven runs a bit cool, though, because when I first checked, the bird was nowhere near that temperature. In total, it took nearly another 40 minutes beyond what I was expecting, with my brothers getting hungrier all the time.

The wait was totally worth it, though. The breast came out tender and juicy, honestly some of the best turkey I think I’ve had. There must be something to that organically-grown approach after all. We also had a simple spinach salad, so with the turkey, salad, potatoes, and casserole, it came out to a nicely-rounded meal.

Here are some pictures of the finished product. Unfortunately they don’t show off the food as clearly as I’d hoped, but I think you can get a sense of it.

Preparing the table


Which color?!

23. May 2011 · 9 comments · Categories: Around the House

The wallpaper, including all the teeny, tiny pieces, are is all gone! After going through and steaming it all, I went back with a squirt bottle and made sure all the surviving straggles vanished also. The boys were actually very helpful (after the baby finally felt better from his 2 week teething nightmare!)

Then it was time to pick a color. So I grabbed a bizzilion swatches from Sherwin Williams. (I like their paint better, their service better, and the store is small enough that I can sort of keep my eye on the kids playing in the corner while I browse colors) I started with these:

And really liked this Halcyon Green:

A friend of mine has a similar color in her house and I’ve always loved it. It’s supposed to look like this. But when I tried the sample it looked more like this…

Not exactly the best match for that room with that furniture. This made me sad because I really like that color but it’s just not good for that room.

So then, I tried Grasslands. I thought it would be a good neutral color with a slight hint of green to it.

There was definitely more than a hint of green though:

That did not look good either. :( Sigh.

So my mom came over, (aren’t mom’s great?) and helped me decide that I needed to find a neutral color that was closer to the browns in the couch cushions. So we grabbed the boys and the couch cushions and headed out to Sherwin Williams again. After much deliberation (mostly on my part) and advise from one of the ‘experts’ there (I think they are expert not because they know colors well but because they can be patient enough to listen to a very undecisive lady try and decide what color to choose), I finally chose this one.
Macadamia

I bought it. I know I should have gotten another sample but I am tired of deciding and I just want the room to be done so I can put the house back together again. It looked a bit bright after I tried it:

But it looks better now that it’s dried and I think it will be better with the couches.

And when I googled the color (for making this post) I found this picture. It it turns out looking like that I think I’ll be happy with it. I’m still sad the original idea for a blue room didn’t work out but I guess I can’t paint the whole house blue ;)

Now I just have to go through and putty and smooth the places in the wall that were damaged from the wallpaper removal, then I can prime it and paint it and be done! In my mind, this will be done by the weekend. We’ll see what reality actually brings but here’s to hoping. On a tangent. I can’t help but feel a little silly about all this with all the people who have recently lost thier homes (and lives) with all the tornadoes. I am thankful for our home but I know in the blink of an eye, it could all be gone:My home, my life, my family. I give my life to God and thank him for everything he gives me and everything he takes from me. (sorry for the tangent…I’ll stop now)


The Rosary unites us

23. May 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Faith: Mary, motherhood · Tags:

More about the Rosary and Marian prayer from Mary and Me:

While women…have found that the rosary brings them closer to Christ, it can also have the effect of bringing women closer to each other. Though it is often prayed individually, group recitations of the rosary offer a chance for Catholics to connect with their larger faith community.

I definitely can relate to this, the Rosary has been a constant visual chain of unity in my life; connecting women and men together. When I was growing up, I went with my mom every Thursday (unless I was in school) to her Rosary group. I played with the other kids and the moms prayed. Now, her group still meets and I join them every now and then as a mother now myself. My kids play and I pray. When I was a new mom, a few other new like-minded friends, who were desperate for company and grace, got together to pray the Rosary. Today, many of us are still friends and new friends have joined. We support each other like the crowd cheers the runners in a race.  The women of my parish meet every Tuesday to pray the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet. We pray, the kids play, and then we eat! It’s wonderful! I used to get upset in the beginning, when my kids were loud and obnoxious and wouldn’t let me sit through the whole Rosary without interrupting me for something or another. But now I’m just glad to be in the company of other mothers who are just living and surviving each day and minute as it comes like me. Sometimes, I like to just sit and listen to them praying, basking in the graces that are flowing from our combined prayers. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt 18:20) A good friend, who also happens to be a religious sister, once said that she feels like she is a better sister than she is a friend and she understand that’s how it probably is for me too. And yes, she’s right, I have to give more of my time and attention to my job as a mother and wife than as a friend. However, I’ve come to find out that I need my friends to be a good mother and a good wife. Together, we all share our common link with Mary, our Mother and bestest friend. Though, one does not need to pray the Rosary or other Marian prayers in order to survive motherhood and get to Jesus, it sure makes it easier! Ginny Kubitz Moyer points this out also:

The prayers [Marian prayers] can be meditative, lulling women into peace; they can also be active, pulling women into the lives of Mary and her Son. There’s a deeply private quality to the rosary, making it a very personal devotion; there’s also a power in prayer it as a group, feeling the combined energy of a community.

In the end, it’s obvious that there is no “right” way to pray. Each of us has her own personal spiritual life, one that may or may not include Mary as a regular advocate. Still, there’s no question that the Blessed Mother has something unique to offer us. She’s the mother who cares for our spiritual growth, the woman who understands the rhythms of a female life. Above all, she’s the faithful disciple who is always ready to drop everything, take us by the hand, and leads us where she wants us to be: close to her son.


Oh where or where did my sweet baby go?

18. May 2011 · 4 comments · Categories: Whiney Wednesday

Simplemama’s

1. My 19-month old has 5 or 6 new teeth coming in. All.at.once.

2. Enough.

3. Said.

It’s good to do a reality check in our ‘perfect’ lives. Get the code for the picture here and link back here if you want to join Whiney Wednesday in your blog. Then leave a comment here (even if you don’t have a blog) or on the Erika Marie/simplemama facebook page if that’s easier.


Allie’s Kite

15. May 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Random

My beautiful seven-year old daughter likes to make up stories with me. Whenever I have my hands and lap free enough, I’ll sit at the computer and type what she says. I love seeing how she thinks. One day, when she’s a famous author, it will be fun to look back on these. Here’s today’s story.

Allie’s Kite

Once upon a time, there was a little girl. And she wanted to fly a kite but she could not fly the kite because she was cold. So, she put her kite in the garage and went back inside to play pretend. But then, she got tired because she tried to play with her kite and anyways she was on her bed. So she plopped her head on her pillow and fell fast asleep. And when her mom came into the room, she saw that Allie had fallen asleep but she also had her head at the bottom of the floor. And her mom woke her up because she was going to try and fly her kite again because her mom said that it wasn’t too windy and it wasn’t too cold. She actually went to sleep because it was night. So her mom and her went outside with Allie’s kite. And they flied it until it got too windy. And they went into their garage to put the kite away and went inside and took a rest. The End.


Nothing like fudge brownies from a box!

12. May 2011 · 4 comments · Categories: Small Successes

1. Made brownies and brought this for snack for my daughter’s after-school activity today.

2. Made said brownies from a box (gasp!!). This is a small success b/c it signifies how I’ve grown to let go of perfection when it comes to only making/sharing food that is 100% healthy all the time. I’m not sure why I ever aspired to that in the first place. Silly me.

3. Pulled out some of the weeds that have taken over the front garden. (thanks to some extra help from my super-sweet goddaughter!)

Share your small successes at it’s new home!


Fajitas!

10. May 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Food

I made some fajitas the other day for dinner with some dear friends and I was quite pleased with how they turned out. The word succulent came to mind when I bit into the steak ones. I think I’ve tried making fajitas once before but never tried again after that one failed attempt. I really like fajitas though and decided it was time to give it another try. And I’m glad I did!

Only problem again is that I didn’t keep track of the recipe exactly  and I didn’t snap any pictures of them but here’s the basic idea of how to make some yourself.

What you need: Chicken, Steak, Green pepper, Red pepper, Onion. Butter, Salt, Pepper, Garlic powder, Basil, Lime juice or a lime, and BBQ sauce….I think that’s it…oh some tortillas, sour cream, salsa, and shredded cheese.

Here’s what you do: Go to the your local meat butcher and ask him to slice a pound or two of sirloin steak into slices for fajitas. Ask him to do this with 4-6 chicken breasts also. This saved MUCH time and I almost hugged the butcher and his wife for doing this prep work for me.

At home, put your steak strips and chicken strips in 2 seperate bowls (or containers with lids), For the steak strips: Add 1/4 cup of lime juice or the juice of 1 whole lime (whichever you have handy) to the steak. Then sprinkle on dried basil, garlic powder, salt, pepper and a little bit of cumin too if you like (if you prefer a more detailed recipe, this is the one I cheated from). Mix this all around with the steak and close the lid or put it in a baggie to marinate for an hour or overnight or 5 minutes if you are reading this at 5 p.m. :) The longer it marinates the juicier the steak will be.  After it’s marinated, fry the steak in some oil until it’s cooked through. (again, don’t look at me to tell you how long this will take). Set the steak aside in a covered dish.

For the chicken, put it in a bowl and then add enough BBQ sauce to cover the chicken, sprinkle on some salt and cook the chicken in a frying pan of oil for as long as it takes to cook through. I recommend stirring it often because it’s fun. Set it aside in a covered dish when it’s done.

Next, cut up your peppers and onion into strips. Warm up some more oil (or use the reserved steak fat if you didn’t wash it already), add some minced garlic and then skillet up the peppers and onions together until they are cooked the way you like ‘em. When your nose starts swelling and you have to wipe drool of your chin it’s a good indication that the peppers/onions are done and ready for immediate consumption.

Ok so now everything is cooked. Set out the plates, napkins, forks on your counter. Next goes a plate of warmed tortillas followed by the meats with serving spoons. Then arrange your fillings-the sour cream, salsa, shredded cheese, maybe some guacamole or cut  up avocado…lettuce and cut-up tomatoes. My friend made a delicious southwest salad and dressing that went excellently with the fajitas, I’ll see if I can track down that recipe too.

So now it’s all ready. Invite everyone to go through the assembly-line and make their own fajitas (except for kids who are too young and/or incapable of such talent).

Eat and enjoy!


A wife needs her husband and kids need their daddy

06. May 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: faith, Family, Marriage, motherhood, Random · Tags: , ,

 

I love my husband. He is a wonderful, honorable, devoted man of God. He works hard and long hours to provide for our family. There have been several times when he’s worked an especially long number of hours for days at a time or has had to go out of town and I start to feel like a single-mom. These times are difficult, to say the least, but it certainly makes me and the kids appreciate him more when he finally returns or gets a little break. During these times that I have to go into ‘single-mom’ mode I wonder how on earth real single moms survive? But then, I also realize just how much I can do on my own. The popular message of the day is that women really don’t need men, much less a husband–we can do everything; anything they can do we can do better…or something along those lines. And I suppose, if tragedy struck and I did have to face parenting alone, God would give me and our children the grace to go on. I could do it. But I’m glad I don’t have to. I do need my husband. He humbles me. He supports me. He backs me up (“Kids, listen to your mother!”), he comforts me and keeps me calm…and is really good at holding up a mirror to my face so I can see how ridiculous I behave sometimes. He’s my voice of reason and my sanity-saver. For me, my husband is the one I go to first to hear God’s voice and discern God’s Will in my life.

I’m not the only one who needs him though. Children are a man’s pride and joy. And a father is a child’s hero and king. Our children’s hearts are full of nothing but love and admiration and respect for their daddy. They love me and need me as their mother of course but their daddy fills a special place in their hearts that only a man can fill. This could not happen in the same way for a child with 2 moms or 2 dads. It is my husband’s masculinity, set apart from my femininity, that my children need, crave, and love. Things are also just better when daddy is around. I love to watch them play with him…they are tossed and turned and spun around until their brains fall out of their heads (ok, not literally) but they just keep going back for more. Invariably, someone always ends up crying but he just screws their heads back on or kisses their ouchies and his antics and their giggles resume. He’s good for more than just a good laugh though. I use words to tell our children what the virtues are and he simply shows them by being himself. He has a way of explaining math and science that just ‘clicks’ with our daughter and a simple “Stop!” or even just a “look” and our 4 year old son’s tears vaporize and his wailing comes to a screeching halt.  He works some pretty amazing magic with our 19 month old too. This baby has been the most attached to daddy than the other two and when he is gone he walks around the house looking for him all day saying, “dadda?….dadda?…dadda?” I know it’s got to be one of the coolest feelings for my husband to come home and be greeted by our three little puppies running up to him, wagging their tails and showering him with kisses (not licks…well not usually).

It’s easy to see that they love their daddy and are happy when he is home and I think they like to be with me too. Or at least they like to know that I am close by. But even more importantly, they need their mommy and their daddy together. I know it’s not always possible for a kid’s mom and dad to be together but it’s not just some idealistic fantasty family life. It’s the way it is naturally meant to be.  Having a mom and dad working together in the same home is important. But it has to be more than just a business arrangement. Kids like and need to see that mommy and daddy love to be with each other too. Through our love and affection for each other, my husband and I set the first example for our children of what love, real love is, or what it is meant to be. We are not perfect, they will see us fight and argue here and there. But hopefully they will also see us apologize, compromise and work together despite our differences. But, even more important than that, they will see God’s beautiful and perfect design of how man and woman, as He did create us, are perfectly complementary together. And, in their own ways, they will understand how the love between man and woman is love-giving and life-giving. This will be a very important truth for our children to understand and personally witness as they get older and as society erodes further down the slippery slope.

Our marriage, our relationship, also offers them a glimpse into the mystery of the relationship between Christ and His Bride, the Church. Though it’s abused and terribly misunderstood, this except from St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians (5:25) sums up the point I think I might be trying to make with my rambling.

“Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body. As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So (also) husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. ”For this reason a man shall leave (his) father and (his) mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church. In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband. ” (emphasis mine)


Focus.Clip.Paint.

05. May 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: Around the House, Small Successes

 

1. Today, I focused on “the necessary” first and was able to get a lot of laundry done and 2 bathrooms cleaned and also checked off everything but 1 of my must To-Do’s for the week.

2. Haircuts! For the baby, the daughter, a little fixing up around the ears and neck for the 4 year-old and even a healthy trim for myself. (Update: oops forgot the cute picture!)

3. Went to the paint store…with 3 young children…today is not Wednesday so I will not tell you about how the baby screamed at the top of his lungs or that the 4 year old put on a 5 minute siren-cry show or even how the ‘responsible’ 7 year old instigated said crying…instead I will show you the paint swatches I picked out for the living room…which I think I’ve settled on setting up as a piano/music/reading room for now. I will also probably put the bookshelves from the office in there to make more room for a bigger homework area for daughter and the 4 year old who likes to do his ‘homework’ while she does hers and there’s just not enough space anymore.

I grabbed a bunch of different samples and idea books for inspiration.


I like these colors but not sure how I will end up using them. The red is from the family room accent wall and also the color of the curtains in the living room. I’m also thinking of using that green on the window/back door wall and kitchen instead of the too-plain color there now. (I have decorating ADD and got distracted from my mind wandered away from the living room)

I got so distracted that I even bought these for our bedroom. I spotted them for a good price at Dillons (I knew I shouldn’t have crossed over the threshold from the dairy section into the fantasy home decorating land.)


Zing.Zam.Zoom.

04. May 2011 · 5 comments · Categories: Whiney Wednesday

Simplemama’s

1. If you compared my clothes to the ones washed with “Tide” or whatever other commercial-brand detergent, mine would lose…by a lot. After a few washes, they have no more spunk. They are capoot. No more color, no more zing. Nada. They also stink. Literally. Any suggestions for a detergent that will keep my clothes bright and alive without irritating our skin or ruining our environment (both of the earth and of mine and my family’s bodies if that makes sense)? And maybe make them smell like a fresh spring day without making my nose run or giving me a migraine? (apparently artificial fragrances are taboo for my immune system)

2. There is a black hole in my mind and it’s stealing my memory. Hmm…I can’t remember what else I was going to whine about…

3. Oh yes…Time. I think obsesses overanalyze about how to spend my time. Every.single.second. Especially when the kids are either alseep or have all spontaneously (and randomly) disapeared to various locations in our out of the house. “Freedom!” Quick! What can I do before they realize I’m all alone?  I try to stick to St. Francis of Assisi’s advice: “Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” But I get stuck on the “what is necessary” part and hardly ever make it to the impossible. I could clean up the kitchen, sweep and scrub the floors, clean out my fridge (you don’t even want to know how dirty it is), clean out the garage (eww spiders!), the laundry…(but that’s no fun), finish cleaning up the wallpaper wall…write that article that is due in a couple weeks…hmm or I could finally read that interestingly-looking link my friend sent me or the book collecting dust on my reading table…oh and I probably should update Quicken from last month and set up our spending goals for this month since it’s already started. Oh and then there’s the whole menu-planning so I know how much meat to buy before 5 p.m. And a shower would be good. But I think I’ll just sit here and blog about all the things I need to do or could do instead.

How do you manage your time?

It’s good to do a reality check in our ‘perfect’ lives. Get the code for the picture here and link back here if you want to join Whiney Wednesday in your blog. Then leave a comment here (even if you don’t have a blog) or on the Erika Marie/simplemama facebook page if that’s easier.

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