Quick Beef Stir Fry
My love of stir -fry began really early on. I knew that I loved the way the vegetables were cut, how colorful they were all sautéing together in a large frying pan. I knew that I couldn’t get enough of the slightly sweet sauce soaked into fluffy white rice. But what I didn’t know was that it was my mother’s busy weeknight secret weapon. After a long day of work, school, and dance classes, I’d stand in the kitchen and marvel at how quickly my mom made this miraculous meal come together. No doubt she was dead tired, but she made it look effortless. I literally remember thinking to myself, “I’ll definitely make this all the time once I’m a grown up.” Fast forward twenty or so years and I’ve kept my childhood promise to myself.
Simple 30 Minute Pasta
We’ve added another baby boy to our family. His name is George, and he’s a five-month-old, sixty-pound Bordeaux mastiff. He’s big, he’s playful, and he’s sweet. Also, he’s nearly impossible to control, so we’ve signed up for puppy training classes. The class is once a week at seven in the evening, which is a pretty annoying commitment given the time of day. It’s around the time we typically eat dinner, which is an issue in itself. If boyfriend doesn’t eat around the same time every day, he turns into a diva. Demanding, aggressive, on edge. His hunger really gets the best of him.
So one evening, about an hour before puppy class, I notice the diva emerging. He’s walking around the kitchen restlessly, snapping at the dogs, opening and closing cabinets. My first mind tells me “don’t cook anything, he’ll be fine until after class”. But I see him angrily chewing on a handful of dry cereal, and come to my senses. I roll my eyes, put on a pot of boiling water, chop some veggies, and in about thirty minutes we have a big, steaming bowl of pasta. Twenty minutes later, we’re in the car on the way to puppy class. The diva has disappeared, and my loving boyfriend is back. Further annoyance diverted.
Easy Homemade Chicken Stock
Sometime last year, I became really uncomfortable with canned goods. I’d been in the process of “healthy-fying” the contents of my refrigerator and pantry, replacing my standard eggs with cage free ones, dumping the standard milk for organic, etc. I finally reached the cabinet stacked with cans upon cans of beans, tomato paste, and chicken broth and thought to myself, “Hey self. How can you make this stuff better?”
I’m not neurotic about grass fed beef and organic produce. I’m just interested in feeding my family things that aren’t ridden with unnecessary pesticides and preservatives. Forget convenience. I started making beans in bulk and freezing them, and stopped buying them in cans. I switched to organic tomato sauce and paste. And I started making my own chicken and beef stock.
Easy Crock Pot Carnitas
The crockpot is typically considered a cold weather accessory. Slow cooking ragu, pot roast, soups, and stews are the norm. But what if I told you I was shaking the slow cooking trend up a bit, and ushering in spring with a crock-pot carnitas recipe? Brace yourselves. I’ve done it. After purchasing some random boneless pork at my favorite market. There’s something to be said about buying unfamiliar things at the market because the price has been reduced. Turns out it’s the ticket to unexpected deliciousness. It took me a few weeks to figure out how to best use it, but it was totally worth it.
The slow cooker is ideal for cooking things that need a low and slow type preparation. I literally tossed this boneless pork in with a can of beer, put it on low for eight hours, and got flavorful, tender, falling apart pork, perfect for tacos and tostados. The hardest part of this meal was toasting the tortillas.
Perfect Roast Chicken
Perfecting one essential recipe was arguably my tipping point between “girl who cooks” and domestic goddess. And it’s arguably one of the easiest recipes to master, so we can all be goddesses at our own houses! A cute little roasted chicken is not only delicious, but also insanely simple to make, and makes a really impressive centerpiece. Until you carve it, of course.
After several trials, (and more than several errors), I've come to two fail proof conclusions. All that’s really important when roasting the perfect chicken is hardware and oven temperature. A shallow roasting pan and an oven heated to a dazzling 425 degrees always renders the perfect result to me.
The haute in domestic
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