When four people get sick, one person needs a Nano.

Image via Wikipedia

At least that's what I told myself when I was on my 22nd load of laundry MUSIC-FREE during the height of the puking. Concerned readers, you can stop emailing wails of concern. We are alive and well. Gastroenteritis laid us low over Christmas, heck, Christmas laid us low over Christmas, so low in fact that I had to buy a new Nano to snap out of it. And a new coffee table and console table. And Wii. And weekend in Pittsburgh. And soon we'll all be in Manhattan.

There might have been a new pair of running shoes and a new cookbook or four, two new bookshelves, a trip to Ikea, and perhaps I'm contemplating major appliance purchases.

My new Nano has made me so fulsomely food productive! My old iPod died about six months ago. Streaming Pandora is awesome, but it's not like girating in the kitchen, singing at the top of my lungs while chopping onions to old friends from my musical past. This is an excellent development because instead of lollygagging around all day on vacation trying to decide what to make for dinner then taking everybody out I'm back to running at full steam with work, kids in school, workaholic husband, vacations to plan, and new furniture to arrange.

Why just this weekend alone, thanks in no small part to a snow day on Friday with the kids, I had time to dance and whip out three pans of this:

The best lasagna. Ever. (via the Pioneer Woman)

It might not the best, because my palate demands bechamel in the best lasagna, but it's darn good, holds up well in the freezer, and my kids suck it down, which means for us, for now, it's the damn best. And we're having it for dinner the night we get back from Manhattan. Don't be too jealous. You can do it too. It's easy. BTW, I never boil noodles. I just do the no-boil variety. They are beautiful.

I also have a big pot of this braising right now, via The Barefoot Contessa:

Parker's Beef Stew

I mostly sorta kinda followed the directions. It smells heavenly, and really, can you go wrong with wine, bay leaf, salt, onions, garlic, and BEEF? I think not. We'll be having that with potatoes this week and frozen leftovers next week with fresh potatoes or noodles. Whatever I have around.

This is what we're having for dinner tonight, and the leftovers will sustain me no doubt for lunch a few days this week, along with coffee, Diet Coke, pretzels, and chocolate:

Jamie Oliver's Very Fantastic Fish Pie via Slashfood

I jitterbugged around the kitchen listening to my British favorites while I threw together Jamie's very British fish pie. I didn't use cream, but cooked down a little extra half & half. I also didn't use the juice of a whole lemon. A tablespoon was plenty, thanks. If I put spinach in a fish pie it's a slam dunk the kids won't get the food near enough to their mouths to even spit it out in disgust, so I stuck with peas. Always safe there.

We'll be rounding out a week a food with a simple pasta dish, some sausages and beans, and a stir fried rice with lovely Asian pork from Donna Hay.

Meanwhile, I leave you with this. I read this post this week from my neighbor (okay, two hours north), Michael Ruhlman:

America: Too Stupid to Took.

I've been thinking hard about what he wrote while I was killing drones on Star Wars: The Complete Saga, or pounding mushrooms in Super Mario Brothers. I feel a little guilty, 'cause certainly I should have been roasting a chicken whilst I Wii-ed my heart out. I'm not sure America is told it's too stupid to cook; I certainly feel like I'm told that I'm busy to cook as I wander around my grocery store aisles with coupons for boxed au gratin potatoes and cake mixes shooting out at me and my cart as I try desperately to find unbleached white flour before I weaken and reach for the canned butterscotch pudding. And Oreos. Anyway, interesting mildly pithy post (my favorite combination) worth a read whilst you wait for your chicken to finish roasting.

Gotta go check my fish pie and stir my stew.

Coming up, one of my best menus for entertaining, pulled together for Christmas Eve this year.

Feel free, dear readers, as you always do, to email me ideas for family friendly places to chow in Manhattan, keeping a four year old squarely in the forefront of one's recommending mind.

Love--Iced

Roasted shrimp

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While I'm on the subject of beach food, a revelation to me was Barefoot Contessa's roasted method of shrimp for shrimp cocktail. It is so easy, not messy, doesn't involve steaming cauldrons, and takes a mere 8 minutes. She has a fabulous recipe for homemade cocktail sauce in her latest cookbook as well, but at the beach I just buy Pete's and add lemon juice. Without further ado, the instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place shrimp (peeled and deveined if you so desire) in a single layer on a baking sheet. Toss with a little bit of olive oil, kosher salt, and pepper. Roast about 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven. Eat warm or cool.

Literary Dinner Companions

Cover of Entertaining

Hello, PassYouBy:

I chanced upon this in the NYTimes this past week (or thereabouts):

Dinner Companions

Leann Shapton, the reporter, asked a few of her favorite authors what books they like to take to dinner when they're alone. Interesting stuff! I'm not sure that a book about a slow, inexorable death from syphilis would make my dinner great, but hey, whatever floats your mashed potatoes in gravy.

I love to stand at the kitchen counter alone, while the kids are playing or have gone to bed, and peruse cookbooks. These are some of my all-time favorites:

Image via Wikipedia

Feast by Nigella Lawson
The most erudite and witty of cookbook authors who happen to address feeding children in a most sensible fashion. How to Eat is also on my short list, but it doesn't have pictures thus my ADD isn't quite as stimulated.

Barefoot Contessa
Any cookbook by Ina Garten is on my short list. Gorgeous pictures, ravishing food, and pleasant headnotes.

Cover via Amazon

Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Margaret Foose
As you know, we vacation in the South every year. This cookbook makes me happily remember vacations past and long for vacations future. Plus every single thing I've made in this book is knock your socks off good.

The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee
Another great, informative, offbeat, comprehensive review of Southern food. Many, many fabulous recipes. The banana pudding ice cream recipe alone is worth the price of the book.

Entertaining by Martha Stewart
This oldie but goodie has been a go-to book for decades. I find the recipes uniformly excellent, but it's the way they're grouped which gets me. She sets the book up in party format. It's a great place to go get ideas from which to plan your own fete.

The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Russo and Sheila Lukins
I don't have the fancy 25th anniversary edition, but I might have to get it someday when my old, thumbed, stained original paperback falls apart. This book launched my cooking career. The friendly chatter and easy instructions convinced me I could make anything. The whimsical pictures drew me in as well. I love, love, love this book. It's a dear old friend and I will be lost someday when it disintigrates.

Cover via Amazon

The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean by Paula Wolfert and The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
Oh, how I love these cookbooks. One of my best vacation memories is with Monsieur Latte in Turkey. I could eat Middle Eastern food morning, noon, and night, pretty much, and that trip we did. I almost didn't get tired of it, although I did want a lot more Diet Coke than was available at the time. These two books are so carefully detailed, lovingly written, and exhaustive in breadth. I feel as though I'm on vacation whenever I read them, on a magic Turkish carpet ride to a world of grilled meat, garlic, and lemon. Ah.