I am a Dad that stays at home with my two boys and who loves to cook and bake. This blog will chronicle my successes and failures in the kitchen to cook tasty and healthy food, and to try and get my picky-eater kids to eat it all!
Sometimes it's good to remember that old saying - "You can't judge a book by it's cover." Such was the case with the quiche I made last night. You may remember me posting the teaser picture on Facebook. If not, here is the picture again.
Finished zucchini and onion quiche.
It looked great - until I started to cut into it. It turns out that even though I had cooked it long enough, the inside was still very loose and runny. In an effort to mitigate any potential for undercooked eggs, I baked it for an additional 7 minutes longer than was suggested, but it did not do anything to help the consistency. The quiche just would simply not stay together.
This is not to say it wasn't delicious. Three zucchini and half an onion cooked up and stuck in a quiche with some sharp cheddar cheese was sufficient to make it taste fantastic. And ultimately that's what I am going for - I'm not competing on Iron Chef where I lose points for presentation. Though as I ate my dinner I thought back to what exactly made my normally perfect quiche fall apart this time. Then I remembered my prep, and how much I cooked the zucchini. Zucchini, like many fruits and vegetables, contains a surprising amount of water. When I pre-cooked the zucchini and onion, I did not cook them fully. My thought was that I didn't want them to get overcooked when they cooked again inside the quiche, but when they cooked once again inside the quiche they gave off a lot of water which threw off the balance of the custard and in fact broke it up.
This was what my slice of quiche looked like...
Well, you live and learn. Tip to all of you that I have learned the hard way - cook your vegetables FULLY before putting them into your quiche.
So on Father's Day we had been at a few events at church that weekend, and had been able to bring home a multitude of leftovers. Owing to this, I had declared that I was not cooking on Father's Day. However, my 6-year old decided that he really wanted to have a grilled cheese. "Cook it yourself" I told him - thinking this would be the end of it. His response? "OK!"
My little sous chef
So he got cooking. There was SOME help getting the cheese sliced safely, and making sure that he didn't burn himself on the stovetop, but for the most part he cooked this grilled cheese sandwich himself. He tended the cooking in the frying pan, wanted to make sure he put down his own butter, and assembled the sandwich himself.
I was rather proud. More often than not these "cook it yourself" moments just turn into some kind of resignation, and that is really what I was expecting. I was not expecting to see my little man cook himself dinner. I mentioned in a previous post about how it is important to give children more independence and confidence in the kitchen, and perhaps this guy is ready to have some more. He certainly proved it with this sandwich.
"My first grilled cheese"
Is it perfect? No. Did he eat the entire thing? Absolutely. Do I think I can get him to eat more stuff if I get him to help me cook it? I certainly hope so. If he can start to take ownership of these things - taste them along the way and see how the flavors build to the end product and something he can put on his plate and eat.
While we are on the topic of building flavors, my nearly 2-year old has been growing ever more independent in his own way. While at dinner, he was served applesauce in a bowl. my 6-year old got down the shaker of cinnamon to put on his own, and all of a sudden there was an insistence for "min-min" from the younger boy.
Adding "min-min" to some applesauce
As we learned, he wanted some cinnamon for his own applesauce. Not only did he want cinnamon but he wanted to shake it out for himself. He then mixed it in for himself, brought a taste to his mouth, and gave a loud happy exclamation and smiled broadly. This guy already has tons of personality, and he is starting to think like a cook already. Hopefully I can start to incorporate both of my boys into the kitchen over the years to come, and soon I can promote myself to the level of executive chef!
Is there anything more classic than having the kids help you bake cookies in the kitchen? Probably not. I still get a little nostalgic thinking of helping my mom stir in chocolate chips into the dough, fighting with my brother and sister over who got to lick one of the hand-held mixer attachments and who got the bowl (Mom always got the spoon) and I can even see the kitchen and taste the dough.
I hope that I am helping create some of those memories now. We recently went to a family picnic, and I decided to make cookies to bring with us to share as dessert. My 6-year old wanted to help, and I was more than happy to let him. Help him mix in the chocolate chips, help him spoon out cookie dough onto trays lined with parchment paper, and let him - even though it was well past his bedtime - try one of those warm gooey treats while they were still warm from the oven.
Was my kitchen a little messier than I expected it to be? Sure, but it cleans up nice. Were the cookies a little uneven? Probably, but they were not so much that you could tell which ones he did with a normal spoon and which ones I did with my fancy-dancy scooper. Were the cookies tasty? You betcha, and most of the more than 3 dozen we made were consumed at the picnic showing that we were not the only ones who thought so.
This reminds me that sometimes there are things more important than just cooking, and more important than having a super-clean kitchen, though I DO like to try to put the effort in to make my kitchen very neat and orderly. It is important to get kids in the kitchen, and get them helping with cooking - and this is something I need to remember more often. Experts say that having kids help with the cooking has multiple benefits, apart from just helping them build confidence and exposing them to new foods.
This is one of my new challenges. Having kids who are picky eaters I think this may be extra important for me. I need to incorporate my kids - especially my 6-year old - into the kitchen more and more. Hopefully this will help expand his confidence, his palate, and keep him healthier as he gets into his teenage years. Hopefully he will leave my house with more cooking knowledge than I had when I left to live on my own, and he will see how cooking well can help him healthy and happy through the rest of his life.
This is still a bit of an experiment in progress, but I wanted to start by putting this out there now. I found an article online recently about regrowing scallions (also known as green onions) by putting them in a mason jar. I had been interested in possibly growing some in our garden this year, but since we are a little late getting our garden started I bought a bunch of them to use in the meantime. Here is a link to the article from 17apart.com.
The article stated that - if left in some water - scallions will completely regrow themselves. I like to have these on hand for garnish or for finishing a dish like a soup or salad, so I decided it was certainly worth a try. So I stuck the bunch of them in a jar with a little water, and then as I used the scallions I stuck the ends back in the jar, root side down.
I don't have a solid verdict yet, but the best plus that I have found to this so far is that the scallions stayed very fresh. If you are like me and don't tend to use a whole bunch at a time, I would definitely recommend this method of keeping scallions. You do have to watch the water level so that they don't get dry and start to wither on you, but they definitely stay very fresh.
Scallions getting some sunlight
As for them growing back, that is still a work in progress. I have noticed some fresh growth on the one bulb I cut way down, so it does seem like a complete regrow would be plausible. I will certainly keep you all updated on whether or not these regrow completely, and how their flavor is when they do grow back.
Ramen. When most people think of ramen noodles, they think of poor college students heating water in the the tiny microwaves above their micro-fridges and slurping the noodles and broth like it was going out of style. I did too - until I starting thinking about how those noodles act as a perfect blank slate for any number of creative food tastes and pairings. So I started using my imagination and created, and this is what I have come up with: my ramen bowl.
Ramen reconsidered
This is ramen noodles cooked in lightly salted water (none of that super-salty broth) and drained, sprinkled with some sharp cheddar cheese, layered with with minced onions and red peppers, fried egg, and some chopped scallions. A few splashes of hot sauce round out the dish. When you cut into the fried egg, the runny yolk mixes in with the melty cheddar to make a sauce, while the egg white and veggies provide some body to the meal, and the noodles act as a medium for it all to be consumed.
Breaking open the fried egg
This is one of my favorite go-to meals to make for myself anytime I feel like I need something substantial for lunch. The great thing about this dish is that it is highly customizable. The veggies I used here can be swapped out for other veggies, the cheese can be whatever cheese you have on hand, and you can even add meat such as ham or cooked chicken to up the flavor also. If you don;t like eggs, you can omit the egg and just use some of the cooking liquid from the noodles to help make the sauce.
Share in the comments what your "ideal" ramen bowl would contain. Remember - use your imagination, and reconsider this versatile and inexpensive noodle.
Yesterday, we went to my sister's house for a birthday party for my niece. After we had been there a while my sister came up to me and asked "Has my husband talked to you about cooking the hot dogs yet?"
"No..." I replied.
She called him over. "Hey, have you asked Nate about grilling yet?"
"No, I just assumed he would be up for it."
I confirmed that I would indeed be up for it and that it was not a problem. Of course I would cook the hot dogs for my niece on her birthday as I did the year before, and just as I had cooked the BBQ chicken and the hot dogs the year before that. I guess it's one of the things about being a good cook - everyone always expects asks you to cook at parties. The other thing about it is - I really don't mind.
Nate working the grill
I love cooking, I love when people get to eat my food, and when I can cook for an entire party full of people, I do it. Even if all I am cooking are the hot dogs. Because I will make sure those hot dogs are the best hot dogs I can cook, and that everyone who eats a hot dog has a smile on their face. Because in my mind - I put that smile there. I made that smile happen. That's why I love doing what I do, and why I will always be up for working the grill. Or the griddle. Or the stove.
Tasty hot dogs!
As we were leaving and saying our goodbyes to friends and families, my sister's mother-in-law says to me "We're inviting you to our next party." You can probably guess why - and by now you know my answer.
So you may be reading this and figuring that DUDE just makes sense. I'm a guy, starting a blog, of course I'm going to refer to myself as a dude, right? Well there is more to it than just that. Yes, the term "dude" does bring a certain "cool" factor, but there is also the matter of my employment. I stay at home with my two boys - something that is becoming more and more common these days. They even have a term for these guys: "Stay At Home Dad", and this is often shortened to SAHD. The acronym, while fitting, is rather...well....sahd. No one wants to go around introducing themselves as a "SAHD". We stay-at-home Dads deserve a better acronym.
All of those Dads who are staying home with kids, managing schedules and changing diapers deserve a better acronym than SAHD. The people over at Fatherly.com did some thinking and came up with a list of better acronyms for those men who are also domestic fathers. For some of the options they came up with 15 you can read about here. After reading these and deciding that none of them really fit me all that well, I went on ahead and developed my own.
Daddy
Under Domestic Employment
Now while it might be slightly misleading to think that I actually have some kind of job outside the duties and responsibilities of my Dad-dom, any person who has done this will tell you straight up that raising kids is a job. It just depends on your life situation as to whether that is your ONLY job or not. Based on my business card, my job duties currently include, but are not limited to:
Chauffeur
Nurse
Dragon Rider
Executive Chef
Tech Support
Sanitation Engineer
Life Coach
Handyman
Batting Practice Pitcher
Head Landscaper
Chief Conflict Resolver
Homework Tutor
Entertainment Coordinatior
Jedi Knight
Go ahead and read the article, and leave your thoughts in the comments section. What is the best acronym for those dads who take the primary role in keeping the house and raising their children? And if you're interested in my shirt - which was recently featured on Huffington Post and a number of other websites - it can be purchased in T-shirt (men's and women's sizes) and sweatshirt form, from the National At-Home Dad Network
Those who are in the know, know. Pixar does a great job making movies. Not just movies for kids, but movies in general. They've taken us inside the secret lives of toys, under the sea, into the closet to where the monsters live, inside the head of a young girl, and into a world populated by automobiles.
But by far my favorite movie from Pixar studios is Ratatouille.
If you're not familiar, it's the story of a rat who figures out how to cook and ends up puppeting a human being. Of course, since rats are not allowed in kitchens, hilarity ensues along with a happy ending for everyone - because it's Disney and it's a kid movie. But the climax of the movie is centered around one final dish, prepared for the primary nemesis - a food critic. That dish is a take on the peasant stew ratatouille, arrayed in a shallow baking dish and cooked en papillote - or under parchment paper.
Recently, I found a recipe for this dish and began making it. It is like bringing a bit of the movie back into real life. The recipe can be found HERE on Allrecipes.com. I do mine in a oval pan, mostly because I like how it looks better.
Ratatouille before cooking
The easy way to keep all of the ingredients in the same order is to use separate tupperware bowls for each of the veggies. Once you have sliced your summer squash, zucchini, eggplant, and red peppers put them in the order you want to have them in the dish, and go from one end to the other. Here is mine in process.
Ratatouille in process
Once you have the dish cooked, I highly recommend serving with some fresh soft bread (this is my homemade oatmeal bread) and some mascarpone cheese. The cheese melts and gives the overall dish some lovely creaminess. It is also fantastic spread directly onto bread. Like butter, it will melt into the bread and add a level of fatty creaminess that pairs wonderfully with a fresh loaf of bread.
Mascarpone on bread
Of course - as difficult as it can be to cook a dish in a professional kitchen, It can be doubly difficult when your kitchen looks like this:
My kitchen "helper" tonight...
Regardless of my "helper", I did manage to end up with a very nice looking plate, once everything came together.
Ratatouille topped with mascarpone quenelle with a slice of fresh bread
If you're not familiar with the term quenelle, its a fancy term for a three sided shape of anything that it soft or moldable, like mascarpone cheese or ice cream. I had my 6-year old act as a cameraman so that you can see just how easy it is to make these fancy-looking toppers.
And just when it couldn't get any better - it does.
What do you think my two boys ate tonight - this fabulous meal with soft fresh bread and creamy mascarpone cheese, or something completely different?
If you went with option two, you'd be correct.
Liam's Plate
Ezra's Plate
Oh well - can't win them all. One day they will be old enough to appreciate the cooking they get. Until then, I just keep cooking like I do and their tastes will catch up sooner or later. Right?
Sometimes life throws you curveballs. You can either shorten your stroke and make contact or you can swing for the fences and hope you hit it out of the park. Last night I was thrown a dinner curveball. We were out looking for a new washer/dryer unit for our place - and since we have some space constraints we had to go to a few places to get the best deal. So we ended up getting home right about 5:30, and I had done nothing for dinner yet. No prep, no pre-cooking, nothing. So I had to grab and go from the fridge and slap something together last minute.
My wife made the suggestion of putting the zucchini on top of the burgers, and along with some ketchup this made the burgers twice as good. It would have been better grilled, but for tonight we ate and ate well, so that is what's most important.
Lunches on the weekends around here are often scattered and disorganized. The 1-year old gets whatever he is eating at the time, normally some yogurt, possibly some leftovers, and fruit. The 6-year old has a grilled cheese, leftover pizza (if there is any), a sandwich, or some kind of pasta. My wife and I often look around for what leftovers we need to use up and try to eat those.
I am known for dressing up leftovers for myself, and often my wife will get leftovers for herself and then see what I made for myself and want me to make that for her instead. Today, I decided to make a double portion of the leftover upgrade for the both of us, and I used the carnitas that we made the other day to make some loaded nachos.
Loaded Carnitas Nachos
I started by putting a good layer of blue corn chips into an oven-safe dish. Then I topped with some shredded cheddar cheese, sliced cherry tomatoes, a healthy dose of leftover carnitas, and finished off with a little more shredded cheddar. This then cooked in the oven at 250 degrees for about 10 minutes or so - just to make sure that everything was warmed through and the cheese was nice and warm. Then I topped the whole dish off with a little of the salsa verde I also had laying around.
Fan. Tas. Tic.
The perfect nacho bite - a bit of everything!
I mean, who can go wrong with a tasty meat smothered in cheese with some fresh veggies and a tasty sauce - especially delivered on a tortilla? No one can.
Friday night in our house is pizza night. Every Friday night I make my homemade pizza dough, throw on some sauce and cheese, put some toppings on one of the pies, and chow down. Except that last night - somehow - I have no mozzarella cheese. None. I searched throughout the fridge for even a partial bag but to no avail. What's a DUDE to do? I could have run out to the store to buy some, but my oldest was throwing a fit about not being allowed to watch a movie tonight, so my options were limited. After reviewing what I had on hand I decided to improvise.
The first pie I made pretty standard, except that I shredded some muenster cheese instead of mozzarella. I figured that since it was a soft, mild cheese it would serve as a decent replacement for the mozzarella. Reviews were positive overall, but it was clear that this was a replacement lineup and the original would have been much better.
The second pie was less divergent. Ricotta cheese made this white pizza easier to manage the loss of the mozzarella, and it was topped with onions, red peppers, olives, and Italian spices to complete the picture.
It's always difficult for me to split my attention in the kitchen, and a humungous tantrum from a 6-year old is a mega-attention hog. The white pizza ended up being a little more crispy than I normally cook my pizza, but we'll forgive the pizza and the kiddo. Dinner is served and it is tasty - and that's the most important thing.
My name is Nathan Hill. I started cooking when I first moved out of my parents' house, and at the time I could barely make boxed macaroni and cheese without screwing it up somehow. At the time I didn't have much of a choice, so I started to teach myself to cook. I watched The Food Network CONSTANTLY, and kept trying new things. Slowly, eventually, I developed into a decent cook. Then I became a really good one - at least according to my friends and family. I find that I really enjoy making things from scratch whenever I can, as it often saves money and increases the quality of the food by quite a bit.
I get joy from cooking something new, and from having my friends and family enjoy my cooking. I like seeing their faces when I get a dish just right. For me cooking is an artistic outlet, as much as the finished product as in the process. I use spices like an artist uses splashes of color, not by any recipe but in bits and guesses. No two dishes are ever exactly the same with me, even when I use the same recipe. I am constantly testing and trying new things, and finding ways to create food from scratch.
A lot of the "from scratch" cooking started when I left my corporate job and began staying at home with my two boys, who are 6 and 1. My wife loves coming home from her day of work to find dinner cooking, and she is constantly coming up with new ideas for me to try. She is often the inspiration behind many of my new dishes, mostly because she will say "How about you make this," or "How could you combine this and that. She is my first taste-tester and quality control, and throughout our 11 years of marriage I have been the primary cook in the household.
One of my #lifegoals is to go back to school and take some culinary classes. Not necessarily to work in food service, but just to expand my knowledge and skills. I want to be able to more expertly apply food science and different cooking techniques to my own kitchen and my own meals.
