FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Santa has come and gone. The trash can is overflowing with empty
champagne bottles, and the tree, if it's still up, is looking pretty
droopy.
Now it's time to get serious about those New Year's resolutions.
Remember them? I stopped making resolutions some years ago because I
always broke them. It took me three years to give up smoking and
another two years to drop 30 pounds of extra weight that came after
that.
This year, I'm concentrating on things that don't require
deprivation. Now, I'm into time management and organization in the
kitchen. (I did office efficiency last year.)
This year, I'll be busier than ever at my computer, meeting
deadlines. That means less time in the kitchen. Dialing for dinner is
not an option because my family's been spoiled with home-cooked meals
for so long. One way to please everyone, including the cook, is to
make a number of dishes that can be stretched into two or three
meals.
If you can still stand the thought of turkey, a whole turkey
breast can be roasted for one meal and transformed into a simple
curry with rice, or diced up in a chopped salad.
The appearance of "new pork" has produced lots of interesting
recipes for roasted pork lions and tenderloins. They don't
necessarily require an expert hand, and one generous roast (or two
smaller tenderloins) can reappear on your table in lo mein or fried
rice.
One of my favorite time savers is roasted root vegetables. I
usually double the recipe and separate into a few batches -- one to
serve immediately and a few for later. I often serve them the first
time with roast pork and later with rotisserie chicken from the
supermarket. Add a salad with citrus dressing, and you've got a
delicious meal with very little effort.
I recently found a wonderful idea in Eating Well magazine, "Ready,
Set, Roast -- Simple, Satisfying One-pan Dinners from the Oven." They
paired either pork, chicken, salmon or halibut with the perfect
combination of vegetables. It's one pan in the oven and everything
cooks at the same time. I doubled the chicken and pork recipes for
additional meals. The salmon recipe is available at
www.eatingwell.com.
Meat or vegetable stews, Cassoulet, braised short ribs and pot
roasts can all be made in quantities to provide a few extra meals.
Stews and pot roasts freeze well.
I have a friend with a very busy schedule who sets aside time two
evenings each week to prepare dishes for days when time is at a
premium. He has about five different recipes for meatloaf and
