Life with Dylan

Category: cooking

  • The Ultimate Grilled Cheese

    Have you ever had a really good grilled cheese sandwich? With just the perfect amount of cheese and the bread just right? Yeah, me too. Grilled cheese is a lunchtime favorite at my house and I believe I have perfected my recipe.

    Oodles of cheddar cheese …

    freshly baked bread …

    I use a mixture of butter and mayonnaise on the outside of the bread and a very thin layer of mayonnaise on the inside before placing the cheese on the bread. I turn the sandwich twice. Once it starts to get golden brown I flip it – then about a minute later I flip it again. So each side gets two flips. I find this keeps the bread from burning. Nothing is worse than a burnt grilled cheese sandwich.

    Some call it comfort food – I just call it amazingly good.

  • The right and wrong way to cut an onion

    I am 41 years old and I have just learned the right way to cut an onion. Yes, there is a right and wrong way to cut an onion. Not the way you are probably thinking though – this technique has nothing to do with the tears in your eyes, but everything to do with the size of your onion pieces.

    Thanks to a video posted by Tiny Oranges, I now have beautifully cut onions.

    If you are a culinary expert, then you may already know this technique – but for me – the average mom who loves to cook this was the highlight of my day.

    Watch the video over at Tiny Oranges and see for yourself. You will never dread cutting an onion again. Bring on the recipes with chopped onions and minced onions.

  • Lemon-pepper fettuccine

    I love trying new recipes and I love cooking things from scratch rather than opening a jar. Thanks to my new cookbook, I have lots of easy recipes to try out. This week it was Dylan’s turn to choose something new. Of course he chose his all-time favorite food – PASTA!

     Lemon-pepper fettuccine

    12 ounces fettuccine
    1 tablespoon unsalted butter
    1 large shallot, minced
    1 1/4 cups heavy cream
    1 large egg yolk
    1 to 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
    1/3 cup grated pecorino cheese
    freshly ground pepper

    This is an easy recipe to make that serves 4 people and only takes 20 minutes from start to finish.

    As with any pasta dish, some yummy crusty Italian bread is always a good addition.

    1. Bring a large pot of water to a rapid boil and cook the fettuccine as directed on the package. Drain and save about 1/2 cup of the cooking water.
    2. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot and a pinch of salt, cook about 3 minutes – stirring occasionally until lightly golden brown. Whisk the cream, egg, and lemon zest together in a bowl. Reduce heat to low and add the cream mixture and cheese to the skillet. Cook, whisking, until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
    3. Add the pasta to the skillet and toss. If the sauce is too thick, add some of the reserved cooking water to thin. Serve in pasta bowels and top with more cheese!
    This turned out so good and the sauce is perfect – not to thick and just the right amount of flavor. It’s not too rich either like some cream sauces can be.

    Recipe from Food Network Magazine Great Easy Meals Cookbook

  • Do Your Kids Eat Vegetables?

    I don’t know about you, but I have the hardest time getting my son to eat vegetables. When he was younger he loved vegetables. Squash, sweet potatoes, yams, green beans, peas, carrots … you name it, if it came in a glass jar with a Gerber label – he devoured it. He loved vegetables so much that his skin actually turned orange! He was like Rudolph, only he had an orange nose.

    Don’t believe me … check out this picture.

    Did I overload the vegetables wen he was little? Could that be why he doesn’t like them now?

    Or maybe it’s a texture thing. I know I don’t like certain foods simply because of the texture.

    Well, I tried sneaking vegetables into his food, I even pureed them. No luck. Then I thought let’s just put them in the foods he already likes. I started simple by adding tomatoes into the pasta sauce. Ok, he is eating them. He loves all Italian food, so I thought I would try putting vegetables in the lasagna. Thinly sliced zucchini and spinach. Yeah, that didn’t go over to well. “What’s the green stuff?”

    Recently he started asking for soup and to my surprise he loves vegetable soup! So if he loves the soup in a can, surely he will love homemade soup even more. After a shopping trip together and learning about all the vegetables his class in growing in the school garden, we made our own vegetable soup.

    I tried to choose vegetables that I knew he liked – green beans and peas, added some little pasta stars for fun, and then tried to sneak in some other vegetables that I wasn’t to sure about. The red bell pepper was diced small enough that he really didn’t notice it. The yellow squash was questionable, he ate a few pieces. The zucchini, yeah, not so much. Even though I chopped up the squash and zucchini in small quarters, he didn’t care for the texture.

    This meal may not have been a total success, but it wasn’t a complete failure either.

    Don’t get me wrong, he does eat some vegetables, but I know he’s not getting all the nutrients his growing body needs from peas, green beans, corn on the cob, potatoes, and spinach tortellini.

    Do you have suggestions for ways to get children to eat more vegetables? What do you cook with vegetables that your children love?

    Leave a comment below and share your ideas. I’m always looking for new recipes to try.

  • Snickerdoodles Recipe Swap

    I don’t know about you, but I love getting new recipes to try out.
    I had the opportunity to work with Kyna over at Great Expectations this week as part of her Quick Recipe of the Week feature. Each Monday, Kyna features a guest blogger and the result is an amazing recipe swap!

    Head over to Great Expections and get my Grandmothers recipe for delicious Snickerdoodles! Who knows, you may find some other recipes to try out like I did.

  • Home Cookin’ Made Easy

    I have been spending some lazy days by the pool and trying to catch up on my magazine reading over the summer. I recently read a poll in an issue of Redbook Magazine and was a little shocked at the results.

    The poll asked How many nights a week do you cook a meal from scratch?

    Photobucket Image courtesy of mareesme

    The results were as follows:

    • 6 or 7 nights – 10%
    • 4 or 5 nights – 44%
    • 1 to 3 nights – 20%
    • Never – 26%
    Am  I the only one shocked by this? I realize that schedules can be hectic and so many options are available to make cooking a convenience, but what happened to the Joy of Cooking? (no pun intended) I’m not saying that every night you need to make homemade biscuits and soup or a four-course meal, but does everything we serve our family need to be pre-packaged?
    Salad in a bag, spaghetti sauce in a jar, frozen lasagna, pizza delivery, and the list goes on. 
    Take the time to cook with your family and make cooking fun. It doesn’t take much time and it’s easy!

    Grate the cheese from a block of cheddar. Chop the lettuce from a full head of lettuce. Cook the chicken and shred it in a pan with some seasonings or taco sauce. Place all the fixings for some wonderful tacos on a sectioned platter and you have a home cooked meal that was easy to make.

    This entire meal only took me 30 minutes to make! Each person got to pick what they wanted on their taco and because we prepared the ingredients and cooked dinner together (rather than buy it pre-made) dinner became fun. I knew exactly what I was feeding my child … No hidden ingredients that I couldn’t pronounce.
    How many nights do you cook from scratch?

  • Dylan’s Cupcake Wars

    It is no secret that Dylan loves watching the Food Network with me. Cupcake Wars is one of his favorite shows and he is always getting new ideas for us to make cupcakes with from this show. As you may know, one of the judges on Cupcake Wars is Candace Nelson, the founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes. When I told Dylan that there was a Sprinkles cupcake bakery just 5 minutes from us he got very excited!

    After much discussion about local and not so local cupcake bakeries, Dylan decided that he wanted to taste all of these “famous” cupcakes and judge them for himself. So today our first stop was Sprinkles Cupcakes in Newport Beach. We purchased two cupcakes. Chocolate Marshmallow and Vanilla were his choices.

    Personally, I do not care much for Sprinkles Cupcakes. The Chocolate Marshmallow basically tasted like a Ding Dong and the Vanilla cupcake was very dry, but my opinion doesn’t really matter … watch the video and see what the cupcake expert had to say.


    Our next stop will be Wonderland Bakery …

  • Cupcakes Galore

    Take 3 pounds of gold buttercream frosting, 2 pounds of cardinal fondant, 5 dozen devils food chocolate cupcakes, and one dedicated baker … what do you get?

    You guessed it USC Trojan cupcakes! My biggest order to date and I had so much fun making them. When Dylan asked how many I was making I said 60 … his response … can you make 62 so I can have some?  Gotta love his way of thinking.

  • Another Learning Experience

    So after Friday’s Fill-In-The-Blank, I was craving sauteed shrimp and pasta. Since shrimp is one of Dylan’s favorite foods I thought I would surprise him. The perfect ending to a perfect day. Within 15 minutes we went from freshly bought shrimp to a delightful dinner.

         
    About and hour after dinner I notice Dylan’s cheeks are bright red. Hmmm, now what did he eat. It couldn’t possibly be the shrimp, because he has been eating shrimp since he was 3 years old and loves it. I have flashbacks to when he was a toddler and this would happen when he ate eggs. Quick, find the Benadryl and everything will be fine. No Benadryl to be found. Not a big deal, it will go away like it always does. 
    Wrong! About 30 minutes later he is itching his legs and arms. When a lift his sweatpants I find hives and his ankles are swelling. The rash is moving up his arms and his hands are swelling now too. Not good. OK, it’s about 10:30 pm now and I need to figure out where the closest 24 hour CVS is. Oh, and did I mention it’s pouring down rain? After calling for reinforcement, aka my Mom, I am reminded how fast allergic reactions can spread. So we decide to head over to Hoag Hospital. Thinking I’m making a big deal out of nothing, but better to be safe than sorry.
    It’s now 1:00 am and we are waiting for the doctor in the Emergency Room. Oh, how I wish I could have crashed out like Dylan. The doctor confirms this is anaphylaxis, in English, an allergic reaction. After a shot of epinephrine, a dose of Prelone, and a dose of Benadryl we are told to wait 20 minutes while they monitor Dylan’s heart rate. Talk about a mother’s state of fear when you watch your child’s heart rate go from 84 to 145. Apparently, this is what the epinephrine does. All is now well and we were sent home at 2:30 am with a prescription for Prelone. Dylan barely remembers a thing because he slept through the entire ordeal.
    Just another day in my Life with Dylan.

  • Wordless Wednesday – Kiss The Cook!