All Purpose Flour... Tortillas!

Tortillas. Universal, transforming, save the day, tortillas! They are a staple at my house. I have served them a hundred different ways, for each meal of the day, not to mention snacks. I buy them almost every time I grocery shop but I can’t even remember the last time we actually had tacos…

One reason I always keep them on hand is for plain old cheese quesadillas. My kids love them and I can make them in minutes for lunch or a snack. I also love having them for deli wraps to send my husband for lunch. It’s a great way to change up the regular ham and cheese sandwich while wrapping up some extra veggies at the same time. Probably the biggest life-saving act that tortillas perform though is pizza crust.

Have leftover chicken? Spread a touch of ranch dressing on a tortilla, top with chicken, whatever kind of cheese you have in the fridge, maybe some fresh spinach if you have any, and pop it in the oven at 425°F for 5-10 minutes. Ta-da! Personal pizza! The combinations are endless! For some, like if you use hard salami for example, you don’t even need a “sauce”. Or, you can thinly slice a tomato, pull apart a string cheese, and add a bit of fresh basil for an instant margarita pizza. I have used tons of leftovers this way and my kids love it because they get to have a whole pizza to themselves. Tonight’s selection was leftover pulled pork with a little barbeque sauce and shredded mozzarella.

Another reason I love versatility of tortillas is because I am able to customize the meal for myself. Tonight was the perfect illustration; the kids had pork pizza and I had a wrap. I’m hooked on the combination of pulled pork and coleslaw so I got to enjoy that while the kids enjoyed pizza, without adding any more work for me. Everybody is happy!

I like tacos, but I love tortillas! Breakfast egg wraps, deli wraps, pizzas, quesadillas, taco roll-ups, buttered and baked with cinnamon and sugar… So many options, so simple, so yummy!

Keepin' it Real

kitchenSWard; “A blog about realistic, fun home cooking!”

You’ve read it, I wrote it. But I have been contemplating its accuracy. Not the fun part. Cooking is fun for me. I’ve just been wondering if the recipes I have posted are realistic. When I first put it out there, I was thinking realistic in the sense that everything I post on here, I have actually done at home, without professional training or commercial grade equipment. My goal was to share ideas in a way that make them easily attainable and customizable for anyone who reads my posts to be inspired.

Let’s talk about what is “realistic” though, shall we? Realistically, I probably spend more time thinking about food than the average, healthy person. I seem to have a food obsession. Everything can be related to food. The Super Bowl is less than 2 weeks away, let’s make tailgate food (it does not matter that my team was shut down yesterday, I’m still making food). We have to drop the car off for maintenance, let’s go out for lunch. The grocery store is selling whole New York strips, how many ways can I use New York strip? I can’t wait for strawberry season so my kids can pick them and I can make them into jam. Seriously, I do not go more than an hour without thinking about food! Don’t worry, I can go more than an hour without eating food though.

Realistically, I let my dishes pile up. Whenever we stay at my in-laws, we have dinner and then my mother-in-law always loads the dishwasher and often washes the pots and pans before she sits down. Every time we go there, I think “why don’t I do that”. And then I come home and I spend an hour cooking and I sit for 10 minutes to eat before my kids are done and ready for their baths and stories and bed. Oh, that’s why! However, I have a friend who has two small kids also and she gets her dishes done right away. I’m not sure but I think she must have a genie or something.

Realistically, I have to write stuff down. I cannot go to the grocery store without a list because I will get ingredients for 7 different meals and when I get home, I will be missing one thing from each recipe. I’m blaming this one on the kids. Baby brain is real my friends! Every week I make a meal plan and a grocery list. I also try to limit my grocery shopping to once a week. It helps me to not over spend and sometimes it results in my most creative recipes.

Realistically, cooking is in my job description. My husband and I are fans of Dave Ramsey and I like his title of “Home Economist”. When I was pregnant with our daughter, my husband and I made the decision that I would leave my paying job to raise our babies. As we were giving up my income, part of my responsibility became to help reduce what we spend. This is a part of why I meal plan, make grocery lists, get creative with leftovers and pack my husband a lunch each day. Also, I do it because I believe I was built for it. I am capable of being out in the work force but I feel called to care of my family. This does not mean my house is perfectly clean, it’s not. This does not mean that I cook from scratch every day, I don’t. This does not mean I take care of all the household chores or parenting on my own, my husband helps. All it means is that we decided earning an income is my husband’s responsibility while taming the home front is mine. And I would not ask to have it any other way.

Realistically, I worry about my family’s health. A huge concern for every parent, I think. The root of my belief about health is that the more nature, the better. Our bodies are incredible! They just need the right tools. I prefer to feed my family ingredients that are as fresh as possible and have endured the least amount of processing possible. I have not cast out all processed foods and I still buy potato chips on occasion but I try hard to keep more good than bad in our diets. Sometimes, this causes me to put a lot of pressure on myself but I’m going to keep at it in hopes that my kids learn decent eating habits that they can take with them through their lives.

Realistically, I run out of energy. This is the primary reason why you don’t see blog posts from me every other day (or on any consistent basis, really). I believe that my husband and children are greater blessings than I deserve. And some days, they take everything I’ve got. I probably have 30 – 40 food pictures on my phone that I intended to share with you on here but I just never got to write about them. Sometimes, I spend all my creativity on making the food that I just don’t have enough left to write about it. Then again, some of those pictures just look better than they tasted…

I think everyone’s reality is different. Some of you will be right with me on some of my realities and others will be like my friend who never has dirty dishes on the counter. My hope is that all of you who follow this blog get a little something from it; a smile, a recipe or inspiration to try something new. I am a real person. I have good days, bad days, busy days, boring days… I’ll do my best to keep it realistic on here. Now I have to go do some dishes.

Bratwurst and Quinoa Salad

Have you ever had an idea that made you go “how the heck did I come up with that?”. Today’s lunch

was a little like that. I was trying to find a way to send cold, leftover bratwurst in my husband’s lunch. See, cold bratwurst does not really sound that appetizing to me. My husband is often less picky than I am but I still don’t like sending him things that I wouldn’t want to eat.

Bratwursts are a summer-time favorite at our house. My three-year-old can easily eat a whole one on her own and her little brother is not far behind. Back in August, our local grocery store had a “Legendary Meat Sale” (can you imagine my excitement?!?). At said sale, I bought 10 pounds of their house-made brats. I stored them in freezer in packages of 8 brats each. The grill is the best way to heat brats, in my opinion. But yesterday was the first day in a week that the temperature outside was in the double digits… Not exactly grilling weather. The next best method I have found is to boil them in beer, onions and water first (which I would do before grilling too) and then pop them in the oven at 400°F to brown. Brats, canned baked beans, and sliced tomatoes and cucumbers – dinner time hit! But I still had 5 cooked brats leftover.

My first solution was Beer Brat Soup. Still sounds delicious but I would have made it with a creamy, cheesy base and I’m just not convinced that would have held up in a thermos. Not to mention that I really don’t want to clean melted cheese out of a thermos the next day. Scratch that idea.

The next solution was a lettuce salad topped with bratwurst. When I started thinking about what kind of veggies I wanted to mix with bratwurst, I was really struggling. I could not think of anything to go with the brat but a bun, mustard, onions and sauerkraut. Oh, and beer, which would probably make my husband’s day until he was fired…

Time to head to the cupboards for inspiration. And here’s is where I lose track of how I came up with Bratwurst and Quinoa Salad. I know the quinoa was in the cupboard but how in the world I decided to mix it with bratwurst is a mystery. But, never-the-less, I cooked it up and went back to what I know I like with brats.

I like my brats best on a bun and loaded up with toppings like onions, mustard, ketchup, pickle relish, and, most of all, sauerkraut! Sauerkraut is how I came up with cabbage, after all, it is where sauerkraut comes from! Then I threw in red cabbage too, just for color! Mustard was a pretty obvious dressing base for me. For the added flavor and dimension, I chose spicy brown mustard and then I tried to look at it like a vinaigrette. Instead of chunks of onion that could be overpowering, I went with grated onion right in the vinaigrette. I replaced ketchup with good ol’ cherry tomatoes and decided pickle relish just wasn’t going to make the cut on this one.

Surprisingly enough, the train of thought did not end in a train wreck. I have never had anything that I can think to compare this to. It doesn’t taste anything like a brat on a bun but it does taste good! It is unique and interesting. I am a little addicted to quinoa but it gives a nice, filling base in this salad. There is good crunch in the cabbage, saltiness in the brats, freshness in the cherry tomatoes and complimenting flavor through the whole thing from the dressing. I’m calling it a success as it but I’m betting that grilled brats with good char on them will be even better!

Bratwurst and Quinoa Salad

Brown Mustard Vinaigrette

1/3 cup spicy brown mustard

1/4 cup olive oil

1 Tbs grated onion

1 tsp honey

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Whisk all ingredients together.

For the salad

2 brats, cooked through and browned

1 cup shredded cabbage

1/3 cup shredded red cabbage

1/4 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 cup dry quinoa, cooked per package instructions*

Prepare brown mustard vinaigrette in large bowl. To bowl, add cabbages and tomatoes; stir to coat.

Slice bratwurst length wise and then slice into bite-size pieces. Add to cabbage mixture stir.

Finally, add cooked and cooled quinoa to bowl and toss together. Serve at room temperature or cold.

*I used chicken broth as my cooking liquid for the quinoa.

Hoity Toity Hunter’s Breakfast

My dad is a deer hunter. Every year he heads out to the woods with his buddies, his brothers, my brother, etc. Very rarely does the hunting season end with my dad empty handed. As far back as I can remember, he has always had venison sausage squirrelled away in the freezer. I have always loved the stuff too! My very favorite is the venison hot sticks. They are literally a hot commodity when dad has them!

When my family was in town for Christmas a couple weeks ago, my dad sent us home with a stick of venison sausage. Up until I opened said stick of sausage, I had been very pleased with the summer sausage varieties that our (now) local grocery store makes in house. But now, my tastes have been reawakened to the salty, garlicy, yumminess that comes only from venison sausage.

The first use for the sausage was to straight up slice and eat it! My husband took it for lunch with cheese and crackers and my kids and I snacked our way through a bunch of it as well. Then it inspired me to make Bloody Mary’s for the first time in years. Bloody Mary’s were a pretty common Sunday pass time for my husband and I before our first born came along but it's been so long, I nearly forgot how to make a good one! The add-ins are my favorite part and none of them are quiet as satisfying as good sausage.

Finally, there was not a lot of the venison left but once you open it, you kind of have to use it up. So, I decided to try to use in a way that was a little out of the box. Initially I was just going to use it in place of breakfast sausage and toss it into some scrambled eggs. But I have also had a serious craving for Eggs Benedict… *Lightbulb*

My affection for Eggs Benedict also stems back to my childhood. My mom would make it fairly often on weekends and one of her sisters would come over almost every time because she liked it so much. I can remember my mom calling us into the kitchen to eat in shifts because a person can only poach so many eggs at one time! She would lay out ham in Eggs Benedict portions and bake it in the oven to free up the stove top for the hollandaise sauce and 2 pans for poaching eggs. I also remember her telling me that you always make your hollandaise first and then take it off the heat because it needs your full attention while it slowly cooks. That is still how I do it today. Although, I have learned that if your hollandaise curdles, you can simply add another egg yolk to bring it back together.

Now, I’m going to let you in on a secret, I don’t poach eggs. I love Eggs Benedict and I make it on a semi-regular basis but I have not even attempted to poach eggs for years now. It’s a pain! And I don’t enjoy poached eggs (especially when they are smothered in decadent hollandaise sauce) any more than a fried egg. I save myself the frustration and time and I go right for fried eggs, every time.

Just like regular Eggs Benedict, I sliced and toasted an English muffin and then stacked it up. English muffin, sliced and warmed venison sausage, fried eggs, hollandaise sauce and sprinkled with pepper. Delicious. I could probably eat hollandaise with a spoon but it’s rich, smoothness really compliments the unique flavor of the venison. Of course, the over-easy egg yolk added move velvety goodness and that English muffin was the perfect tool for soaking it all up!

I’m not positive, but I would guess that if you asked my dad to try this, it would be a little too far-fetched for his tastes. Me on the other hand, I can’t think of a better way to end a perfectly delicious stick of venison sausage!

Venison Eggs Benedict

(4 servings)

4 English muffins

16 slices venison sausage

8 eggs

Hollandaise sauce (recipe follows)

Black pepper (optional)

Slice and toast English muffins, lightly. Place, open-faced, on plate.

Warm venison in single layer in a frying pan over medium low heat or on baking sheet in 275° oven.

Fry eggs to over easy.

Place 2 warmed slices of sausage on each side of each English muffin. Top with 1 fried egg per muffin side and top with a spoonful of hollandaise sauce. Sprinkle with pepper and serve immediately.

Hollandaise Sauce

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup firm butter

1 Tbs lemon juice

In small sauce pan, whisk together lemon juice and egg yolks. Add 1/4 cup of butter and place over medium low heat. Whisk almost constantly until butter has melted then add remaining 1/4 cup.

When all butter has melted, remove from heat. Sauce should be thick, indicating egg has cooked through. Heating to fast or over cooking will result in the egg yolk curdling.

Daddy's Girl

As I was making supper last night, a new thought (or at least a new perspective on a thought) occurred to me. I have always given my mom the most credit for inspiring my love of cooking (and she deserves it) but I have never really considered my dad’s influence.

My parents have been divorced since I was little and I lived with my mom for the majority of my up-bringing. However, I was still a daddy’s girl. Although I don’t remember, I have been told that my dad would take me out on the tractor when I was a toddler and I would fall fast asleep on his lap while he cut hay. I do remember that as I got older, I always looked forward to “dad’s weekend” and going “bummin’” with him. To clarify, “bummin’” seemed to be driving around without a real plan, stopping at any garage sales that looked promising, visiting anyone you knew that looked like they were home, usually getting a burger somewhere, and just hanging around the family farm. I loved it! I still can’t pin-point why I loved it, but I did!

One of my biggest food memories from being a kid with my dad is that he used to take us through the drive through at the place with the secret sauce. He would order like a dozen hamburgers “plain with ketchup and pickles” for us and whichever of my cousins were around. Getting fries was a real treat and if we did get them, he would ALWAYS say “eat your burger first cause I don’t want to hear ‘Daaaaad, I’m hungrrrrry’”. My cousins and I could (and did) imitate that phrase perfectly!

When we weren’t out bummin or having drive through burgers, my dad did cook. He grew up on the farm and he prefers meat and potatoes. He’s not really big on a lot of seasoning or spices and I don’t think he tries many experiments in the kitchen, even to this day. But what he does cook, turns out pretty good and he inspired last night’s supper.

I am not even sure what we used to call this supper when I was growing up but I’m going to call it goulash now. Dad’s version was a can of tomato soup, a can of Veg-All mixed veggies, ground beef and wagon wheel pasta. I have to admit, I’m thinking the reason why I liked this so much as a kid was the wagon wheels… I loved pasta then, I love pasta now, and there are few pastas that are more fun than wagon wheels! Now, some of you who have read this blog may be thinking (as I am writing this) that this recipe calls for a lot of cans. I didn’t exactly follow dad’s recipe, I was just taking a lovely stroll down memory lane while I was preparing my own version!

I happened to have had some homemade tomato soup in the freezer that I chose for this, along with some frozen tomato puree from the end of the growing season here. I am also not a fan of the consistency of canned veggies in my food-snob adulthood so I opted for frozen peas and carrots as well as frozen corn. Last, but not least, I added a bit of bouillon for that salty, brothy, base and sadly, I did not have any wagon wheels so good ol’ elbow mac had to do. Just to round out the memory for myself, I buttered a slice of bread to eat alongside this, just like dad would have!

My kids gobbled it up, my husband had a hot meal in his thermos today, and I had a very satisfied belly and heart remembering supper with dad as a kid!

Dad’s Goulash

1 lb ground beef

15 oz tomato soup (canned or homemade)

15 oz tomato puree (canned or homemade)

1 cup water

1 cup frozen peas and carrots

1/2 cup frozen corn

2 beef bouillon cubes (start with 1 if you are using canned soup and taste-test for salt before adding 2^nd cube)

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 lb dry pasta, cooked per package instructions

In a 6-quart pot, brown ground beef over medium heat until cooked through. Add all remaining ingredients except pasta. Bring to a simmer and cook 10-15 minutes until bouillon cubes are dissolved and veggies are tender.

Stir in pasta and serve immediately.

Holiday Hustle

My apologies to any of you who have been waiting on a new post from me. I truly appreciate each of you who read this! This time of year is my absolute favorite but I have a tenancy to bury myself in projects. From decorating to handmade gifts to entertaining to cookies, I love it all! But I am finding that all of that leaves very little time for blogging.

Honestly, it doesn't leave a lot of time for cooking either. I tend to do a lot of quick and easy things or pull things out of the freezer while I run around like a crazy elf. I did try to make braised baby back ribs this past weekend. It is a recipe that I have made before and the first time I did it, the ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender and the flavor was amazing! I have tried the same recipe probably six times since then and still have not achieved the same results. I keep trying to get the best cut ribs, cooking a little longer, different varieties of white wine... I can not figure out why I'm not getting the same results. The flavor is good, my ribs are just not getting even close to as tender!

One recipe that always turns out though is my sugar cookies! This is pretty much the only kind of cookies I make at Christmas time even though I have seen (or tasted) hundreds of other delicious Christmas cookie recipes. I stick to rolling out homemade sugar cookie dough and cutting out all of our favorite shapes. Then I whip up some of my mom's buttercream frosting in a bunch of colors for decorating. Sometimes I add candies on the Christmas trees and chocolate chips on the snowmen but, for the most part, I'm completely good with straight up frosting!

What is your favorite type of Christmas cookie to make? Or eat!

Tradition Addition

What a wonderfully busy weekend! It seems that every weekend from now until New Years is always wonderfully busy. This is my absolute favorite time of the year! My husband works crazy hours during the holidays and then I fill basically every one of his non-working hours with Christmas traditions (new and old)!

Yesterday we upheld an old tradition; we went Christmas tree hunting with some really great friends of ours. This tradition started as “Sunday, Funday” before we had children and was an entire day of mimosas (and other concoctions), Christmas trees, snacks and hot soup when we got home with the tree. The first year, we got home with our tree and added tortellini to the soup we had in the slow cooker. We figured we would play a round of cards while the pasta cooked so we all sat down at the dining room table. The next thing we knew, there was a slow soup waterfall flowing out of the slow cooker, down the cabinet and forming a lovely pond on the floor. Tortellini in the slow cooker must me supervised at all times…

These days we do things almost the same way but with our children and without mimosas. This year, our soup was even the same flavor as that first year. But what I wanted to share with you today was the meatball appetizer we dug into this time.

I believe I made mention in a previous post that I was popping some leftover sage stuffing in the freezer. If I had to guess (because I didn’t measure of course), I would say I had 3 cups of stuffing or so. As it turns out, that is enough stuffing to mix with 3 pounds of ground beef and 1 pound of pork sausage to make enough meatballs to feed an army… I’m thankful my friend offered to roll meatballs with me or I might still be doing it! Lucky for us, they turned out delicious and almost a dozen of them were eaten before I even got the sauce together!

For the sauce, I wanted to keep playing off of the Thanksgiving flavors of the stuffing. I decided to add cranberries to my store-bought honey barbeque sauce. I can remember my mom adding grape jelly to barbeque sauce when she made cocktail wieners for holidays and parties when I was a kid. They were ALWAYS a hit. My thoughts went like this; cranberry sauce is a little like grape jelly in sweetness and jelly consistency, cranberry sauce is as much of a Thanksgiving staple as stuffing is, cranberry barbeque sauce and sage stuffing meatballs makes complete sense!

I think these meatballs were good enough to be added to the annual tradition roster. The cranberries gave the sauce just the right about of tartness but didn’t over power the tender, savory meatballs! We all ate so many meatballs and cheesy bean dip that we barely had room for the soup in the slow cooker (and tortellini that we cooked separately on the stove top this time).

 Holiday Cocktail Meatballs

For the Meatballs

3 lbs ground beef

1 lb pork sausage

About 3 cups cooked sage stuffing

3 eggs

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp dried thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 4 baking sheets.

In the largest bowl you can find, combine all ingredients. Scoop roughly 2 Tbsp for each meatball and roll into balls. Place meatballs on baking sheets about 1 inch apart so they have a chance to brown in the oven.

Bake for 30-40 minutes. Allow meatballs to cool on pan at least 10 minutes before transferring to vessel with sauce.

For the Sauce

3 cups honey barbeque sauce

3 cup fresh cranberries

1 1/2 cup apple juice

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Pour over cooked meatballs and simmer until sauce thickens slightly (about 5-7 minutes). Serve warm.

*Meatballs freeze well in case you are not trying to feed an army. And sauce can easily be reduce to 1/3 of the amount written.