white bean chili. or, "When I Was Waiting For A Baby and Bridian was in Europe"

When I was about 38 weeks pregnant, I decided I wanted to make a bunch of freezer meals. I didn't want us to even think about dinner for as long as possible after our baby was born and relatives left and friends stopped bringing food. So I started making a list of meals and ingredients I needed. As a "thank you" from my internship team, I'd received, among other things, a grocery store gift certificate, but I learned at this grocery store that you have to use the entire balance of the gift certificate in one shot- anything you didn't spend was just lost. So I made a long list. The day Berlin was due (because if nothing else, I am absolutely a procrastinator), we went shopping. We spent an hour or so finding everything we needed and then things we wanted and then things we thought maybe we should get just because we did NOT want to waste this gift certificate. Funny, because we made it to the balance, only overshooting by 20 cents. We were incredibly proud. And then when the cashier found out I was due that day, she laughed and said, "Better take another lap around the store!"

Yeah right. Like a Mortensen/Lindstrom was going to come on his due date. Ha.

So Thursday (we went shopping on Monday), when there was still no sign of a baby, I decided I should probably start cooking, since the baby was not going stay indefinitely snuggled inside of me, and I cooked up a storm all day (more on those recipes later). Closer to dinner time, I realized I hadn't really planned for dinner for that night. And I was not about to sacrifice a meal for a time when I didn't want to cook for a time when making one more meal after 10 was not really a big deal.

But I had zero ideas. Zero. Apparently cooking and creativity are inversely related.

Bridian was on her 6-week sabbatical somewhere in Denmark (or London. Who knows), but she'd been texting me when she periodically found internet. Most of our conversations were about life plans, of a little more epic proportion than what to eat for dinner that night, but. I braved the break in conversation topic. She laughed at me, especially at my problem of not being able to think of anything after cooking all day, and suggested this soup that she'd made for me one time and she thought I liked it. So she proceeded to text me the recipe. One. Ingredient. At. A. Time. Instructions weren't really included. I had to clarify a million things a million times. I finally scribbled everything on to a tiny scratch of paper to make sense of it and repeat it back to Bridian. I have lost this little scrap of paper half a million times and I really don't have any idea how I've managed to find it again (which is a huge reason in why I'm blogging this one). When I reminded her of this a couple of days ago, she laughed again. "Yeah, that sounds like something I would do."

Anyway, what resulted was one of my favorite soups of all soups. Which is saying something, because I've had are a lot of really great soups. This one is just... top 3. Super simple, super delicious. I use this one a lot for cold days and for bringing soup to friends who are sick/have just had a baby/both. I also love eating/serving this soup with homemade bread, if you care to know. But really, what soup isn't great with homemade bread?

1. Boil 1-2 chicken breasts (depending on how much chicken you want in your soup. When I double this, I use two and it's plenty). After they're cooked(10-15 minutes), let them cool until you can shred them. Save the broth!
2. Saute half an onion, diced, with a tablespoon of butter (in your soup pot).
3. Then add:

• 2 drained cans of great northern white beans
• 1 small can diced green chilies
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp oregano
• salt and garlic powder to taste

Simmer for 10-15 minutes. When it's done, add 1/2 cup of sour cream and 1 cup of heavy cream.

I don't even have anything else to say. I've already ranted and raved about it, so- enjoy!

homemade bread

In case you didn't notice, this loaf is half eaten. I'm telling you, I'm an addict.

I absolutely love homemade bread. Love, love, love. I will eat entire loaves by myself. Sometimes in the same sitting. My grandma loves to make it, especially for me, and that's probably where I learned to love it so much. I lived with my grandparents for a month or so before Jeremy and I got married, and my grandma made sure there was always homemade bread for me. 

Man, it made me love her so much more than I already did. 

 
So as a wedding present, my grandma gave me bread pans and a bag of flour. I don't know what she was thinking. She needs to just always live close enough to me to give me fresh bread! (Which she did. Especially when Berlin was born.) But finally, I decided to pull the plastic off of the pans and learn to make bread. Turns out, not as difficult as I thought. Though it took some experimenting. My first try resulted in burned outsides and uncooked insides. I called my grandma. She gave me some suggestions, and I tried again. It looked perfect, but I was incredibly wary of the insides. I sliced it open, and it seemed just fine inside too.  So I got brave and made a loaf for a friend, and warned her, "I'm still figuring out how to do this. As you cut closer to the middle, watch out. You may get a mouthful of dough." She laughed at me. And told me the next day that the whole loaf was amazing. 
 
Thank you, Grandma, for helping me get it right!

• 3/4 cup warm water 
• 1 package active dry yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp) 
• 1 tsp salt 
• 1-1/2 tbsp sugar 
• 1 tbsp vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup milk 
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, roughly

1. Put the yeast and sugar in a bowl. Add the water, and let it set for about 10 minutes.
 
I've found that the key to working with yeast and getting it to rise properly is letting it react first. The yeast needs to eat something as it reacts, which is why you add sugar. So you mix the yeast and the sugar together, then add the water. Scorching water will kill the yeast, so if you turn on your hot water and fill your measuring cup right as the water starts to turn hot, it’s perfect.
 
2. Add salt, shortening, and milk. Then add the first two cups of flour.

3. Add more flour a tablespoon or so at a time until the dough chases the spoon around the bowl. Then put the dough on a floured surface and knead, adding more flour as needed until the dough is soft and smooth (not sticky. If it’s still sticky, add more flour).

The amount of flour you need to make bread can vary, even if you’ve made it before in the same place during the same season of the year. So many factors affect bread, like the weather, room temperature, etc., so don’t get set on the same amount of flour. Don’t be afraid to add more or use less- go by the texture of the dough. If it’s smooth, you’re done. You don’t need any more flour. If it’s still sticky, keep adding, even if you’ve already used the 3 cups. That’s why it says, “Roughly.”

4. Put dough ball in a clean, greased bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour (or until dough has doubled in size).

Sometimes a warm place is hard to find. If it won’t double your gas/electricity bill, let your oven start preheating to 350 and let your bread sit near it (not on top of the oven. It will start to cook parts of your dough. No good.), and then you can always guarantee good warmth. And, if it’s a cold day, your kitchen will be the place to be!

5. Punch dough down, and then move dough to a greased bread pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes (until bread fills up the pan).

If you let your bread rise a little longer than these times, it won’t hurt your bread. I’ve left it for an hour and a half instead of 30 min (I didn’t leave my oven on) and it was fine. Some people like to make the dough the night before and leave it overnight (it does get huge though, so make sure you don’t cover it with a plate or your plate will end up on the ground. In my case, broken.) so they can have fresh bread in the morning. Whatever works for you. Experiment, see what works best.
I also have only used DARK bread pans. Sometimes, you need to vary your cooking time if you use glass pans, and as far as I know, it takes longer with a glass pan, roughly 45 minutes total. Make sure you watch the bread during the last 15 minutes.

6. Score the top of the bread- make 3 slashes across the top.

7. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Let it cool in a clean dish towel (this also keeps it warm for longer). Try not to eat the whole loaf by yourself.

Inside Out Tacos

Food has become our excuse to be social. Between the amount of traveling we do and the number of activities in which we've involved ourselves, we don't leave many opportunities to be incredibly social, especially on weekends. Our desire to be social, however, hasn't gone away, so we've tried to find ways to be social during the week. How? Inviting people over for dinner. We always have to eat, everyone we know also happens to really enjoy eating (let's be honest: who doesn't love eating?), and it definitely makes our weekdays more interesting. Some days I think it's pathetic that this is true, other days I think that we're brilliant. Depends on my mood. And how recently we've seen the friends we're inviting over.

Sometimes though, we don't really plan a night with friends. We just start to make dinner, something happens, and we have friends over. Not to make our other friends like we love them less because we plan for them, but these impromptu dinner parties are usually the best.

Earlier this week, my brother- and sister-in-law were coming over to plan a party (by this we mean the girls were planning a party and the boys were playing FIFA. They don't care what the reason is, if it means they'll end up at the same house with an xbox, they're in).  My sister-in-law texted me to ask what time they should come over, and I said, "We're just starting dinner. If you guys haven't eaten yet, you're welcome to come eat with us." It was already 6:30, and I had just gotten off the phone with my sister who had made a dinner recommendation when I whined about needing to make dinner and not having even a bad idea about what to make. She suggested this fabulous recipe, and I needed to run to the store because we'd just run out of chicken, but otherwise, I already had most of these things from other meals that week.

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into halves
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil, divided
• Green onions, diced finely
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 3/4 c chicken broth
• 5 cups tortilla chips, broken into large pieces
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 1 c shredded cheddar cheese, shredded (or whatever you have. I usually have either a giant bag of Colby Jack or a smaller back of a Mexican blend. Both work great)
• 2 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

1. Pat the chicken breast halves dry and season with salt and pepper.  Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large stainless steel (or otherwise oven-safe) pot over medium-high heat.  Add the chicken to the pan and cook until golden brown on both sides (your chicken doesn't need to be fully cooked right now, just the outsides.)  Transfer to a plate and set aside.
2. Add the remaining oil, green onions, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.  Cook just until it starts to smell wonderful, about 30 seconds (and it will smell wonderful).  Add the chicken broth, scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pan, and let it start to simmer. 
3. Stir in half of the tortilla chips. Put the chicken into the broth so that the chicken is covered as much as possible (I cut the pieces in half again, so that they cook faster and fit in the pot better) and cook over medium-low heat until cooked through, which is about 10 minutes.  When the chicken is cooked through, take the chicken pieces out, let them cool enough to be able to handle, and then shred the chicken. Put the chicken back in the pot. 
4. Add the tomatoes, 1/2 c cheese, and 1 tablespoon of cilantro. Stir in the other half of the tortilla chips until the chips are moist. 
5. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top and place the pot in your oven with the broiler on high for 2-3, just to melt and slightly brown the top. Top with the remaining cilantro and serve! 

My in-laws asked if they could bring anything, and I said, "It's kind of a casserole, so there's not really anything you can add... maybe fun drinks?" So they went to Sodalicious and bought us each a soda. Man, I don't even like soda very much and I love that place. 

This recipe has been passed around from blog to blog, and my sister sent it to me from a blog but suggested some alterations. I made some of my own alterations, and then I really wanted a different name. Throwing "casserole" into anything makes it sound less appealing to me, for whatever reason. So when we started to eat it, my husband asked, "What are we eating?" and I said, "It's kind of like the inside of a taco." But the shell is inside too. Inside out tacos? Duh. Why didn't they think of that a long time ago?!

Thanks Brid :)

meat and potatoes- variety with basics

So in the last five months, we've eaten a lot. If you can imagine. A jump roper and a pregnant lady. We make quite the hungry team.
I've been pretty thrilled with the energy I've had throughout my pregnancy, so fortunately I've still been able to enjoy cooking. Despite what I haven't shown on this blog. I really like to try new things, recipes others give me or random things I find online by searching for a list of the ingredients I want to use, especially when I'm not feeling terribly creative and don't have any ideas on how to mix things myself. But I also have some basic go-to ideas, formulas if you will for a quick, no-thought meal that still tastes like there was a lot of thought put into it. Marinades are great that way :)

The idea of marinating is, of course, that you let it marinate. If you're trying to think of dinner plans at 4:30 to eat a little after 5, overnight marinating is out of the question. But letting your meat bake in a marinating sauce, or really most kinds of dressings, gives your meat great flavor, even if it's not as rich a flavor as you would get from actually marinating. I also using this baking marinate method because we find random marinated and salad dressings on sale for a dollar or so, usually less than that, so we sample them. Why not? Once or twice we've found that they're a little strong for marinating (actual soaking it overnight), and the meat isn't very good afterwards. Baking instead of marinating makes the flavor not as strong- if you're experimenting, it's a safer method of not being disappointed.

So there's your meat. Thaw something that maybe you don't know what to do with (pictured: top sirloin  steak- we found in a small package that was barely enough to feed us, but it was perfect with a side) and cover it in a salad dressing (pictured: sun-dried tomato salad dressing). Let it bake at somewhere between 350-400 for about 30 minutes, depending on the meat of course, but across the board, this is pretty safe. Check it periodically, of course; some meats you want more done, some a little more tender.

Not the greatest picture in the world, but I always forget to take a picture until after we're eating. Oh well.

Then I have an assortment of four kinds of potatoes that I choose to go with the meat- mashed, wedged, baked, or twice-baked(pictured). None of them take quite as long as the meat does, so dinner can be ready all at the same time, but you can prep the potatoes while the meat is cooking. 

Mashed potatoes Everyone has their own recipe. I like to chop and boil potatoes, drain them, beat them with a little bit of butter and a little more milk. 

Wedged potatoes My sister taught me this one, and I use this style of potatoes all the time. Cut a potato into wedges (if it's a large potato, using two is too many for me and Jeremy, so maybe 3/4 of a large potato is a generous serving size for an adult), arrange them around a microwave safe plate. Sprinkle with whatever seasonings you like (I use a garlic pepper blend), and then put a generous tablespoon or two of butter in the middle of the plate. Cover with saran wrap. Put in the microwave for 9 minutes. Delicious.

Baked potatoes Stab each potato generously with a fork. Toss the potatoes into the oven around your meat tray (they'll  need roughly 15 minutes more than the meat will). You can also make them in the microwave- stab each potato generously with a fork, then put them in the microwave for about 12 minutes, flipping them over about halfway through (the time varies with the size of your potatoes and the power setting on your microwave, so you may need a little more or a little less time). 

Twice-baked potatoes There are lots of great recipes for these. I use a pretty basic and somewhat adapted recipe- Bake the potatoes (I usually do this part in the microwave), let them cool a little bit before slicing them open and scooping out the insides, leaving a potato canoe. Mix the potatoes with a tablespoon or two of butter, a little bit more milk (1/4-1/2 cup), bacon bits, and cheddar cheese. Spoon the spread back into each of the potato canoes, and stick them back in the over for another 15-20 minutes. 

Step 1: Meat and marinade. Bake for half an hour.
Step 2: Pick a potato style. Throw together while the meat's cooking.
Enjoy!