It’s hard to believe January’s almost half over and I haven’t posted my Christmas pictures yet. Actually, that’s not that hard to believe. The only resolution I’ve accomplished was canceling my gym membership. Ciao (for the 4th time), 24 Hour Fitness! You know I can’t stay away for long & will always support you! (Financially, that is.)

Also, I had hoped to have my new blog “theme” up to make the recipes more easily searched etc. but alas, I no longer have any free alone time now that I always have a child with me. Therefore I’ll need to enlist professional help. Stay tuned for my new blog & URL “Real Housewife of Santa Monica” hopefully out in 2012!! Seriously, hopefully up in February.

I love the idea of enchiladas but wanted to make them without that jar of red/brown sauce they’re usually swimming in. Not that I don’t LOVE that sauce & pretty much all sauces but every once in a while I like to make something a little lighter, fresher & more easily visually discerned. What the *@#$% am I talking about?

We were heading out to a friend’s birthday “Under the Sea” birthday party so I made all the components before we left. Our friend, Katarina (remember her from the alphabet wall post?) wowed us with all the details!

Maddie dressed herself for the party.

We were the first to arrive so I took some quick snaps before anyone else got there. Don’t you hate the guests who arrive RIGHT ON TIME?

A watery wonderland!

Fishing pole licorice imported from Sweden in person by a helpful brother.

Starfish honeydew!

Floating jellyfish.

Make a fish station.

Starfish PJBs.

Shimmery fishy background.

The CAKE!!!!!!

This cake was not only cuteness overload but also REALLY DELICIOUS!!! (Katarina: if you are reading this – please tell us what kind of cake it was in the comments section below??) I know it had chocolate and a fruit jam layer…YUM!

An adorable party thrown by our friends! Phew – that was a ton of work.

When we got home, we assembled & baked the enchiladas. These are easy, appealing (despite poor photography skills) & tasty.

Adapted from Whole Foods.

Here’s what you need:

Chopped veggies.

Corn (fresh or frozen.)

Diced tomatoes, black beans & tortillas.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cans black beans, drained & rinsed
3 TBS favorite salsa (OPTIONAL)
2 tsp cumin
2 TBS chili powder
2 TBS olive oil
1/2 onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 red pepper, diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 ear corn (or 1 c frozen corn) removed from cob
cilantro to taste (I totally forgot to buy cilantro)
ground black pepper to taste
1 can diced tomatoes (or Rotel if you want some spice!)
3/4 c Mexican shredded cheese
8 corn tortillas (makes 4 enchiladas)

We were getting ready to go to a friend’s birthday party so I didn’t take pictures of each & every step but I know you get the idea of sautéing the veggies… Here we go:

1. In a medium bowl, mash the drained & rinsed black beans. Add 2 TBS cilantro, half the cumin & half the chili powder.

Add the salsa to the black bean mixture if you have it! Combine.

2. Sautee onions in olive oil for about 4-5 minutes being sure to stir to coat with oil. Add minced garlic for another minute & stir to coat.

3. Add corn, stir & cook for about 2 minutes. Add zucchini & red pepper & stir to coat. Cook for another 2 minutes.

4. Add tomatoes to mixture along with the remaining cumin and chili powder & cook over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes. (Option: I pureed my tomatoes in a blender. This is only recommended for the PICKIEST of eaters. They will never know there are tomatoes in this dish now.) If you blend them, add to the onion/veg mixture at this point!

5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. I am a huge fan of this stuff now. You all probably use it all the time but I just started using it and it saves on REALLY bad dishes when you’re done cooking. But I digress… place 4 tortillas on the baking sheet. Using half the bean mixture, top each tortilla. Then top that with the tomato/veggie mixture. Finally, sprinkle about half the cheese on top of the tortillas. Now add your 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th tortillas on top (think “lasagna.”) And repeat the process, using the rest of all your ingredients.

First (bottom) layer complete!

You probably noticed 6 stacks in my pix. That’s because I planned to make extras. I started making the first layer and soon noticed I must’ve only had 10 tortillas to begin with. You do the math(s). Anyway, I decided to make two open-faced ones.

Mmmmmm…jalapenos!!! I LOVE THEM!! I can’t help myself.

Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Top with remaining cilantro, lemon wedges & sour cream if desired!

These are really tasty & good the next day too!

It has been warm here all week. Like in the 80′s. But I didn’t let that stop me from making a vegetable barley soup with homemade rustic bread! In LA it cools down at night anyway so even people from So. Cal. can snuggle inside…

Here’s what you need:

Btw: you can change out the veggies according to what’s in season near you, what you have in the house, what you like etc.

INGREDIENTS:
2 TBS olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
4 carrots, shredded
1 zucchini, chopped
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (14.5 oz) can garbanzo beans
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3 bay leaves
freshly ground black pepper to taste (or pre-ground!)
1 tsp salt (adjust to taste based on the salt content of your broth & diced tomatoes)
fresh ground pepper to taste

First chop your onion. People, I want to share how I chop onions. I am not a chef or anything so, if you already have a great way, or a way you learned at Le Cordon Bleu etc. just go on by. Otherwise, after years of the most inefficient chopping, I’ve been using this technique.

Here we go:

First, cut off that useless end. By useless, I mean the end that was never connected to anything. AKA the “tunic.” (NOT the roots.)

Now, place that cut side down & cut the onion in half through the root.

You have two halves. Take the skin off both of them. Place one of the halves on its side.

and cut very thin slices. (Unless you need chunky pieces!) I have been conditioned by my family to make onions DISAPPEAR so I cut them pretty thin. Once you’ve made all your slices, rotate the onion (keeping it together) and slice them thinly the other way.

You should have some pretty small pieces.

Prep all the vegetables first. I do it the night before when the kids are asleep… I decided to grate the carrots because they cook a lot faster and are more challenging for the kids to pick out. It’s fun to watch them try!!

Now we can start cooking!

1. Heat a large pot (this makes a lot of soup) using medium heat. Add oil & when it’s heated, add onions, stirring to coat. Cook for about 4-5 minutes or until onions are translucent.

2. Add garlic, stir & cook for another minute. Add celery & stir to coat. Saute another 1 minute.

3. Add zucchini & carrots, stir to coat. Cook another 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.

I threw the bay leaves at this point, then took them back out. Just wanted to see if you were paying attention…

4. Add spices & sugar and stir to combine evenly.

Try to collect your thoughts while this is going on.

I don’t know why everyone is in the kitchen?

Take away breakable dishes from the 1 year old.

5. Add tomatoes & garbanzos.

Mmmmmmm…

6. Add barley, broth & bay leaves.

7. Bring to a boil. Then turn down & simmer on low for about 45 minutes or until the chick peas & barley are soft.

Add black pepper to taste & serve with the easiest homemade rustic bread in the world. Or with store bought rustic bread!

The stars must’ve aligned because both my kids liked and ate both the soup & the bread. Amazing!

Adapted from AllRecipes “Beaker’s Vegetable Barley Soup.”

If you’ve never made bread before, this is the recipe for you! Get on over to the baked goods aisle of your neighborhood Ralph’s, Safeway, Publix, Stop & Shop, Grand Union, Path Mart, oh or Wegmans (how could I forget Wegmans?) and get you these ingredients in your re-usable hemp bag:

1. Bread flour (OR all purpose flour)

2. Fleishmann’s Active Dry Yeast (you can buy in little packets if you don’t want to commit to bread-making yet)

3. Salt (surely you already have salt???)

4. Parchment paper (this will be near the wax paper but is NOT the same as wax paper)

BIG TIP: Make the dough the night BEFORE you plan on eating the bread! You’ll see why…

(I have whole wheat flour in the ingredients pic too but you don’t need it! I’ll tell you the whole wheat option at the end of the post if you’re interested & have it.)

INGREDIENTS:
3 c bread flour (or all-purpose flour)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1.5 c lukewarm water

This is SO easy you won’t believe it. Get out a large mixing bowl and a wooden spoon. Also, fill a measuring cup with 1.5 cups lukewarm water.

Here we go:

1. Mix flour, yeast & salt together.

Add water & mix the whole dang thing with a wooden spoon

until it starts to “come together.”

Your dough will look sort of rough, or, rustic, if you will. If it looks that way, you are doing a kick ass job with this bread!

Now, dump it unceremoniously into a large mixing bowl, cover with saran wrap and place in a warm part of your kitchen if such an area exists. On top of the oven is usually warm b/c of the pilot light. **Update: I now leave it in the bowl I mixed it in to save on dishes!**

Leave it for 12-20 hours!

Check on it obsessively all the next day.

Or be normal and go to work or take care of your family while thinking about more important issues like social security, healthcare, the environment & Newt Gingrich. Ew, maybe not Newt as we are going to be eating soon…

Give yourself an hour to bake this if you need it with dinner. Here’s the last & STILL EASY part!

Find a good solid pot with lid that can withstand a 450 degree oven. Some of those Le Creuset pots etc. that I don’t own, by the way, might be good. I have my grandparents’ old pot which I use for everything. No plastic parts on it. Possibly loaded with lead & mercury but what, me worry?

Line the pot with parchment paper.

Throw away the mess you made cutting that out.

And put the scissors back. My new year’s resolution – to put things away this year. But only for ONE year.

Using just enough flour on your hands to GENTLY remove the dough from the bowl, carefully place the dough onto the parchment paper in your pot.

Put lid on pot

and place pot in COLD oven.

Turn oven on to 450 and set timer for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, take lid off and set timer for another 30 minutes.

Take pot out of oven, take bread out of pot & let it “rest” for 5 minutes before slicing.

Holy gluten, Batman!!! There is nothing like homemade bread!!

If you try it, I’d love to hear how it went in the comments section below…

Phew! It’s been a while and I have loads of recipes to share with you. And a lot to keep to myself (read: “Coxy’s Kitchen Disasters.”)

I hope ALL my loyal readers (Dad?) enjoyed your holidays and are set for the new year. Or, are at least recovering from overdoing it in every way.

We’ve had a wild month and if it was hectic, we brought it on ourselves. We had a Christmas party over here that was loads of fun. Unfortunately, there are no pix as our hands were literally full the whole time. Luckily Bea had just started walking so every so often I’d see the crowds part and a little 2 footer stagger on through like a tiny drunk looking for her Mama (her nickname for George.)

The party presented me the opportunity to live a lifelong dream of making decorated/frosted sugar cookies for Christmas. Until around 12:45AM the night before the party, as I stood up squeezing Royal Icing onto each of the three dozen cookies when I started hating the cookies. Those cookies were privy to lots of F bombs.

Anyway, I’m a little bummed we didn’t get any pictures as we saw a lot of friends we haven’t seen lately – some in over a year. We sure did appreciate them coming by to see us!

Around the middle of the month, Patsy arrived and we couldn’t have been more thrilled! Having Nana here as another set of ears to listen to the 3 year old soap operas going on between a green alligator finger puppet (named “Toy Store”) and his sister, a golden lab Calico Critter named “Bella” was a HUGE relief for another set of ears. (Mine.)

Maddie finally understood the tree decorating. I still don’t really understand it but I’m glad she does.

And Bea helped too.

Between our party and Christmas, we were invited to a 3 year old “Under the Sea” birthday party. Stay tuned – that will be a separate posting for those of you interested. Amazing work by a talented & extremely pregnant Swedish woman.

Enough about family reminiscing – let me insert this yummy Carmelized Mushroom recipe for you before you’ve fallen asleep for the night!

G doesn’t “do” fungus but Maddie & I do. Since he was working late every night, we threw all mushroom caution to the wind!

This recipe marks my first attempt to use egg replacer. I picked it up at The CO-OP in Santa Monica. It comes in a groovy, totally Brady Bunch looking box.

See?

You can probably get egg replacer at any health food store or maybe even Whole Foods? The kind I got comes in powder form.

Ok. Let’s make the biscuits first!

Here’s what you need for those:

BISCUIT INGREDIENTS
2.5 c all purpose flour
1 TBSP baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1/2 – 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 c chopped fresh chives
3/4 c unsalted butter, cold & cubed
1 large egg (I used egg replacer!)
3/4 c buttermilk, cold

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, black papper & chives.

I spent so much time buying, chopping and photographing my chives…

that I forgot to add them until the end. It worked out fine though.

2. Add butter to dry ingredients. Just look at it!

3. Use your fingers or a pastry cutter to incorporate the butter into the flour mixture.

4. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg replacer & buttermilk.

5. Make a small well in the center of the fat and flour mixture.

6. Add the buttermilk mixture.

Use a fork to combine the wet & dry ingredients.

7. Be sure to moisten all the flour bits with the liquid. Your dough will be “shaggy.” No problem!

8. Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured surface & kneed together until well combined. Use a rolling pin or your hands to make your dough about 1.5 inches thick.

9. Use a round 1.5 inch biscuit cutter to cut the biscuits. I didn’t because I didn’t have one. But I did use a flower cookie cutter. Because I did have one. Doesn’t my biscuit look cute?

Place biscuits on a cookie sheet, wrap with plastic & refrigerate until ready to bake.

Here’s what you need for the mushroom mixture:

MUSHROOM MIXTURE INGREDIENTS:
2 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP unsalted butter
1 pound small cremini mushrooms, cleaned and cut into bite size chunks
1 medium purple onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 teaspoon dried thyme
2 medium carrots, sliced thin
2 cups diced sweet potatoes (small!)
1.5 cups frozen peas
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups vegetable or mushroom broth (Mushroom broth? They really have that?)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
dash of balsamic vinegar (optional)

1. If you plan to make the whole kit n caboodle, then set the oven to 375 right now!

2. Melt butter into olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.

Add mushrooms in a single layer in the pan and allow to cook, without disturbing, for about 4 minutes. Add a hearty pinch of salt & black pepper. Toss the mushrooms every once in a while until softened and golden brown.

You’re probably looking at this picture and thinking to yourself, “That doesn’t look like a single layer of mushrooms to me.” I need to use a bigger saucepan next time. So sue me!

Remove mushrooms from pan.

3. Add more olive oil and sautee onions about 4-5 minutes, until soft & translucent.

4. Add garlic & cook for another minute.

5. Add carrots & sweet potatoes and sauté for 5-7 minutes. I actually did 10-12 minutes because I worried I hadn’t chopped them small enough.

6. Add thyme. Return mushrooms to the pan. Turn heat to low and add flour. Toss. Slowly add broth, stirring constantly until thickened. Add peas.

7. Add salt & pepper to taste. Stir in Worchestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar.

Pour mushroom mixture into an 8×8 inch pan. Or whatever you have that comes close. I think I used an 8×11 glass casserole baking dish. Place the biscuits on top of the mushroom mixture.

8. Bake for 20-35 minutes until biscuits are golden brown.

YUM!

These will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days and they get better!

From Joy the Baker.

Please excuse the funkiness of the printable but that’s the only way to insert two recipes on one posting according to my technological prowess.

I was going to go into more about the neighbor who “adopted our cat” and renamed him “Maxwell” despite him sleeping here every night but I think we’re all tired so I’ll sign out here.

Tomorrow check back for the Christmas pix and, more important, the recipe for the EASIEST NO-KNEAD (no need to knead?) rustic bread you’ve ever (or never) made in your life!! If you’ve never made bread before, you only need FOUR ingredients, all of which can be purchased at Ralph’s. So definitely check back tomorrow for that posting! And then call Maddie & ask if she can take a nap tomorrow so I can actually write it. Thank you!

Some days I have no idea(r) what to make for dinner. Sesame noodles, pasta with olive oil & parm, pizza, and mac & cheese can only be served so many times. Well, LOTS of times, actually.

Here’s something you can literally throw together without feeling *as* guilty. (I’m not a Catholic, but I play one in real life.)

Here’s all you need:

1. Sautee onion in heated oil over medium heat until translucent (about 4-5 minutes.) Add garlic & cook for another minute.

2. Add diced tomatoes.

3. Add oregano.

4. Yell at kids & remind them that you only need 10 minutes if they can just “be good & watch TV!”

5. Hold baby while finishing this soup and thank your stars you picked something easy tonight.

6. Add broth. Bring soup to a boil. Then add tortellini & follow cooking instructions on package. Unless you made them yourself, in which case you aren’t reading this blog.

7. A minute before tortellini is done, add spinach. I told you to read the WHOLE recipe before you started! Oh, you say I didn’t? I meant to!

That’s it!! There’s nothing else to do except sprinkle fresh parmesan cheese on top.

You really don’t need to bother with bread or a salad which makes fewer dishes.

My kids loved this the first time. (I had to cut Bea’s tortellini up and obviously she couldn’t handle hot soup but she ate the solid parts cut up.) The second time Maddie refused to eat anything but the tortellini. Believe it or not, I have read all sides of the picky eater being made v. born and, with that knowledge under my belt, I think next time I’ll puree the soup before adding the tortellini. In other words, in one ear & out the other.

I might even puree the spinach in if it won’t look too gnarly.

***

UPDATE: I made this a few more times and finally have it down! The reasons I omitted the spinach are threefold:

1. My kids hate it.

2. I refuse to buy spinach when my garden is full of swiss chard.

3. It gets slimy the next day. Nobody likes slimy leftovers and I don’t like wasting food.

Instead I added 3-4 shredded carrots. I also pureed the tomatoes before adding. My beloved in-laws gave me an immersion blender for Christmas so I used that. Thanks Fitzs!!

Finally, I added some parmesan cheese directly to the soup & stirred. I then sprinkled a little across the top of each serving! Yum!

Adapted from Annie’s Eats.