Shop Talk Tuesday: In the Kitchen

Let’s face it – one of the challenges of running your own business is answering the daily question of: “What’s for dinner?”  Although I love to cook, the dinner hour in my house is a flurry of homework, carpools, requests, emails, phone calls, texts, so often dinner has to be fast and easy.  Fortunately, my mother is a great cook and taught me how to rely on a few reliable pantry staples, gadgets, cookbooks and recipes to pull off a meal.  In honor of Mother’s Day and our celebration of moms this week, I thought I’d share some of my favorites learned from my mom:

Pantry & Freezer Staples:

• Canned tomatoes
• Head of Garlic
• Onion
• Pasta
• Italian Seasoning (I swear by the Spice House’s blend)
• Whole cut up chicken

Gadgets:

Pressure Cooker: I cannot live without my pressure cooker.  Maybe this is a genetic thing, my grandmother had one, my mother had one, and those pressure cookers got a workout!  It is the busy (lazy?) person’s crock pot, meaning that what takes hours in the crock pot takes less than an hour in a pressure cooker (and you can braise right in the pressure cooker – one less pan).  Instead of thinking about dinner at 8 am, or whenever you need to fire up that crock pot, you can throw things in the pressure cooker about an hour before you want to eat.  Steamed veggies, stews, soups, curries – the pressure cooker can do it all and make the best tasting food you’ve ever had super fast!  For those of you who like to be eco-friendly, did you know that pressure cookers are used all over India because they cook quickly and therefore require less cooking fuel?

Garlic Press:  Fresh garlic makes almost everything taste better, and a garlic press makes quick work of mincing garlic.  When you’re in a rush, forget mincing by hand and break out your garlic press.

Immersion Blender: One of my go-to quickie meals is spaghetti, but I don’t always have spaghetti sauce on hand.  Canned tomatoes +  immersion blender + fresh garlic = quick spaghetti sauce.

Cookbooks:

Best Basic: Joy of Cooking

Best Kid-Friendly Recipes: Nigella Kitchen by Nigella Lawson

Best for Easy but Interesting Recipes: The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper

Recipes:

Jenny’s Mom’s Spaghetti on the Fly:

1/2 Onion

1 clove Garlic

1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes

2 tsp. Italian Seasoning (or more to taste)

Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil

1 lb. pasta

Open the can of tomatoes and stick your immersion blender right into the can.  Blend until smooth.  Cut up the onion – minced or chopped is fine.  Heat olive oil in a large-ish saute pan or pot over medium high heat.  Add the onion and saute for a couple of minutes.  Put the clove of garlic unpeeled into your garlic press and squeeze into the pot.  Saute until the garlic is fragrant – don’t let it burn.  {You could add ground beef or Italian Sausage at this point if you want a meat sauce} Add the Italian Seasoning and saute for a few seconds.  Finally, add the can of tomatoes.  Bring everything to a boil, and then turn down heat to allow the sauce to simmer and thicken a bit.  {If you’ve added meat, simmer until the meat is cooked through}

While the sauce simmers, bring a pot of water to boil and add the pasta and a good amount of salt.  Cook according to directions on the pasta box.

Taste the sauce and add salt and pepper to taste.  Drain the pasta and serve with sauce on top.  Start to finish, this spaghetti takes about 30 minutes to prepare.

Ruth’s Pressure Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup

Broth:

1 Onion, quartered with skin on

1 Carrot, peeled and halved

1 stalk Celery, halved

Bay Leaf (optional)

3 Whole Peppercorns (optional)

salt and pepper

Canola or Olive oil

Water

1 whole cut up chicken, skin on – you do not even need to defrost if it’s frozen

To finish soup:

1 carrot, peeled and sliced

1 stalk celery, sliced

1/2 bag egg noodles

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp. Italian Seasoning

Prep the vegetables for the broth as indicated above.  Break out your pressure cooker.  Heat some oil over medium high heat in the pressure cooker.  Salt and pepper the chicken, and add the chicken pieces to the pressure cooker to brown a bit.  Throw in the veggies and the Bay Leaf and whole peppercorns if you have them.  Add about 6-8 c. water – the pressure cooker should be about 2/3 full.  Put the top on the pressure cooker and if it has settings, adjust for making soup.  Raise the heat to high and wait for the pressure cooker to come to full pressure – it will make noise!  Turn down the heat to medium low and cook for 45 minutes or so (if the chicken was frozen, an hour or so is better).

While the broth is cooking, prep the vegetables for finishing the soup and cook and drain the egg noodles according to package directions.

When the broth is finished cooking and the pressure cooker has unlocked, drain the contents into a separate pan through a strainer.  Set the strainer on top of the pressure cooker, and bring the strained broth in the new pot to a strong simmer.  Add the prepped vegetables and Italian Seasoning to the broth and allow to simmer.

While the veggies are simmering, remove the skin and cut up the meat from the parts of the chicken you like.  I like all white meat, so I just use the breasts and toss the rest.  If you don’t mind dark meat, cut up some of the meat from the thighs and drumsticks as well.  Add the cut up meat to the simmering broth.

Check the broth for salt and add as needed.  When you’re happy with the saltiness, add the cooked egg noodles.  Sometimes I use my garlic press to add some fresh garlic, too!

Active time for this soup is about 30 minutes in prep.

Enjoy, and to all you fellow moms out there, I hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day!

XOXO –

Jenny