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I’ve got a great son-in-law! He prepared a fabulous Christmas dinner the other day.  His first inclination for Christmas dinner was lamb. However, my husband isn’t a big fan. My son-in-law then sent me a text saying he decided on veal. I assumed that he was making veal cutlets, but much to my surprise he made osso buco.
 
He found a fantastic old fashioned butcher shop, John’s Meat Mark, in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. My son-in-law was impressed by the service and knowledge of the butchers and also their walk in meat locker. They carry a wide variety of beef, pork and chicken products. John’s also carries assorted varieties of specialty sausage including Andoille, Chorizo, bratwurst, bockwurst, weisswurst and knockwurst. If that isn’t enough for you how about foil gras and wild game such as duck, quail and venison to name a few. 
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During the holidays everyone is busy between shopping and holiday prepping. Recently I was at Wegmans and purchased fresh shrimp from North Carolina. Recently the price of shrimp from North Carolina was as high as $16.99/lb. to a more recently acceptable level of $9.99/lb. Each time I saw the shrimp at Wegmans, I reached out to my sister-in-law on the Outer Banks to see what she was paying for fresh shrimp. Fortunately, at $9.99/lb. this was just $2 more per pound that my sister-in-law was paying. I grabbed a pound for supper.
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This week I had to pick up my granddaughter from daycare as both her parents were working extended hours. As my husband is also working extended hours during the holidays, I also needed to have meals on hand for him to reheat in my absence.
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My son loves Kane Brewing in Ocean Township, NJ. And over the Thanksgiving holiday he brought some stout beer to the house. There was one can that he left in my refrigerator.  I’m not a beer drinker, so I needed to find a recipe in which to use this product. I found a slow cooker recipe on the New York Times cooking app called slow cooker beef stew with maple syrup and stout. After reading the comments left by other cooks, this appeared to be a good recipe. The recipe recommended using a 3 to 3-1/2-pound chuck roast and cutting it into 2-inch chunks. However, I was only able to locate one roast that wasn’t part of a two-pack family pack. You’ll also need carrots, parsnips, russet potatoes, fresh thyme and rosemary, stout beer, real maple syrup and balsamic vinegar.
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Last week I was channel surfing our local PBS station when I came upon the show Sara’s Weeknight Meals. It’s hosted by chef Sara Moulton, who had one of the first cooking shows on the Food Network called “Cooking Live.” Sara literally cooked an entire meal in one hour while fielding questions from viewers calling in.

On this particular episode she was cooking several dishes with eggs. The one that caught my eye was Soufflé Omelet. This beautiful, fluffy omelet was made with five eggs and filled with goat cheese mixed with chopped broccoli. The omelet will serve two. My husband didn’t think it would be filling, but he was surprised that it was ample enough for him. I served maple pork breakfast sausage ($6.99/lb.) from Whole Foods to go along with the omelet and toasty whole wheat English muffins from Vermont Bread Company. Overall a super quick and delicious breakfast for supper meal. 
Soufflé Omelet filled with Broccoli and Goat Cheese
Sara's Weeknight Meals Season 9 
 
Makes 2 servings
Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Total preparation time: 27 minutes

Ingredients
1/2 pound cooked broccoli, coarsely chopped
3 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
5 large eggs, separated
2 tablespoons all purpose flour

Directions
Preheat oven to 375° F. Toss the broccoli with the goat cheese and saltand pepper to taste.

Heat the oil in a 10-inch nonstick or stick resistant skillet with a heat proof handle until it is hot and tilt the pan to coat the bottom with the oil; remove from the heat. Whisk the egg yolks with the flour, 1/2 teaspoon saltand 1/4 teaspoon pepper until the mixture is thick and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until they hold soft peaks. Stir one quarter of the whites into the yolks and then fold the remaining whites into the yolk mixture gently but thoroughly. Pour the eggmixture into the skillet, spreading it evenly.

Bake the omelet in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes, or until it is puffed and almost cooked through, spoon the filling down the middle of it, and with a spatula fold the omelet in half to enclose the filling. Bake theomelet in the middle of the oven for 2 minutes more, or until the cheese is melted and the omelet is cooked through.
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The other morning, my husband was thoughtfully giving me supper suggestions. Sometimes I can use a bit of inspiration. His ideas were good, but they spurned me on to find a new take on ground turkey burgers. My go to sources for meals is New York Times Cooking or Epicurious. For the turkey burgers, I found a good recipe on Epicurious for turkey burgers with tomato jam, olives and feta. I will say, the only change I made to the recipe was to swap the feta for ricotta salata has I would use any leftover more so than the feta.
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I love Delicious Orchards of Colts Neck, New Jersey chocolate sugar cookies. They are soft and fudgy tasting. While I can purchase a bag anytime, I enjoy baking as I find it relaxing. I’ve had since December 2018 a recipe for chocolate sugar cookie dough from Southern Living Magazine. The dough is made with unsalted butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking powder and salt.
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Now that Thanksgiving is over, I can now catch up with the review and recipes for my Thanksgiving dinner. Perhaps some of these recipes will intrigue you enough to prepare them for the Christmas and New Year holiday.
 
For appetizers, my son and daughter-in-law brought over a wonderful cheese board. They went to our local Wegmans for the ingredients. The standout on the cheese board was the goat brie and the olive tapenade, yum! We also had a sinfully rich Alexian Truffle Mousse with pork, turkey and chicken liver mousse. By request, my son wanted to make sure that we had Mr. Shrimp’s crab spread. We had a little taste of everything. Next, we had fresh cheese ravioli from Pastosa. Nothing beats fresh pasta. Again, we had a few each with leftovers sent home with each our children. 
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Thursday is my babysitting day for my granddaughter. After spending the day with her and the commute home in rush hour traffic, I want to prepare a dinner that is quick and easy to prepare.
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It was a hectic week last week. Early in the week I had to pick up my granddaughter from daycare, dentist visit, coffee with a friend, work and my regular day of babysitting on Thursday.  I arrived at my daughter’s house at 7:30 am with pancake batter so my granddaughter could have freshly made pancakes for her breakfast. 
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After breakfast, my granddaughter wanted to go to the park with Nana, so we bundled up it was in the mid 30’s last week. We were the only ones at the park. She swung on the swings, we went down the slide and then on our return trip home, made a stop for a bag of freshly made apple cider donuts.  Apparently the fresh air did her good, as she napped for two hours.
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I was at my local Costco store today pricing out baking products. Here’s what I found:
 
•   Three pound bag of shelled walnuts are $10.99, however, my local Wegmans had three pounds for just $9.99.
•   5 count tube of organic Madagascar vanilla beans for $15.99
•   1 gram of saffron $11.89
•   Almond flour $12.99 (3 lbs.)
•   Craisin were $8.99 (3 lbs.)
•   Although I didn’t price it today, Nestle chocolate chips run under $10 for 4 lbs. 8 oz.
  • ​Pure vanilla extract $29.99 (16 oz.)
 
Through the holidays, it appears Wegmans has a special price on their brand of baking products
 
•   Light brown, dark brown and confectioners’ 10X powdered sugars $0.99 for 32 oz.
•   Sweet or salted butter $2.49 (1 lbs.)
•   White granulated sugar $1.49 (4 lbs.)
•   All purpose flour $0.99 (5 lbs.)
 
I like the quality of the Wegmans brand of products. My baked goods come out perfect.


​meet donna

A former teacher, shop-a-holic, empty-nester redefining quick, family approved dinners.

​If you have questions or comments, click on the envelope icon above to contact me directly. 

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