I make awesome fish tacos, if I do say so myself: lightly spiced, pan-seared fish and a crispy cabbage slaw wrapped in a corn tortilla. Me gusto!

Want to be an awesome fish taco maker too? The recipe is near and dear to my heart: it was one of the first ones I ever made up. It is highly adjustable. Feel free to use more or less spices.

Enjoy!
Pin It]]> http://franticallysimple.com/2012/05/fish-tacos/feed/ 4 http://franticallysimple.com/2012/04/white-bean-chicken-chili/ http://franticallysimple.com/2012/04/white-bean-chicken-chili/#comments Thu, 12 Apr 2012 08:00:28 +0000 Simply Heidi http://franticallysimple.com/?p=4409
You all know how I love meals that are healthy, but quick and easy to get on the table, right?
Between running Newt to her classes and activities, homeschooling and spending extra hours in front of my laptop, I’m finding it more important than ever.
This dish is nearly perfect. It takes only minutes to make but tastes amazing. Pair it with a quick salad and some bread and you’ve got a meal. If only everything good was this easy.

]]> http://franticallysimple.com/2012/04/white-bean-chicken-chili/feed/ 9 http://franticallysimple.com/2012/03/on-my-mind-6/ http://franticallysimple.com/2012/03/on-my-mind-6/#comments Thu, 22 Mar 2012 05:40:21 +0000 Simply Heidi http://franticallysimple.com/?p=4371 one
Happy third day of spring!
This is the view from my living room window:

I am fully disgusted.
Except for the part where we cancelled school because of snow and spent the day reading and watching episodes of PBS’s Colonial House.
Sounds a lot like a school day, doesn’t it? Shhh… don’t tell Newt.

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Cookies are over. Can I get an amen! To thank me for my service as cookie mom, I was victim to the sweetest act of vandalism ever. Loved it.

It actually made me cry a little. In a good way. Especially when I saw the one signed by Newt:

Since her facination with Dr. Who (especially the 10th Doctor, played by David Tennant) has become a full-blown obsession, I was truly flattered.

two-point-five
So, uh, Heidi, if cookies are over, what’s up with the sparse posting on ye old blogge?
Oh, that. Well, I’ve got a couple of other projects up my sleeve.
First of all: homeschool. We’ve buckled down, at Newt’s request.
Another Amen would not be inappropriate here.
We are finishing up our first 12 weeks of Ambleside Online’s Charlotte Mason-style curriculum.
Non-homeschoolers, just smile and nod. This part will be over soon.
Can I just say that I love this curriculum?
Of course I can. 1) I just did and 2) it’s my blog. I can say whatever I like.
Anyway, AO has breathed some new life into our school day. Very exciting stuff.
However, as such, I am trying ever-so-hard to block out larger portions of my day for this oh-such-important stuff.
Even though I still check in with social media far more than I probably should. I’m looking at you Facebook and Pinterest.
Second of all: I’ve been writing a middle-grade children’s book.
My book is about Captain Hook’s daughter. She’s stuck in a stuffy finishing school and desparate for adventure, but she may get more than she can handle when she is charged with hunting down the crocodile that killed her father.
Want a tiny sample?

Let me see, how to describe the girl…
Ah, I have it! Have you ever been privy to witness a great disaster, such as the burning of a circus?
Picture it: a great trumpeting of elephants and snarling of tigers. Ladies, both beaded and bearded, fainting of terror. A mighty bucket brigade made of midgets and clowns, sword-swallowers and finely dressed dandies, all shouting and sweating as they passed bucketsful of water up the line to the source of the flames. Now look to it, the great and tragic circus tent aflame, its colors more vivid than life, and all the more beautiful wrapped in disaster…
If you can imagine that, you will have a pretty good sense of young Jocelyn Hook.

Since I have been spending more time in that world, I’ve had less time for this one. However, I still intend to keep touch with y’all at least once a week.
[note: Heidi is not from the South, but the occasional ya'll still slips into her writing. In addition, she also called the library today to see how late they were open and asked about it with a fake southern accent: "Yes Ma'am, how late are ya'll open tonight?" Heidi is weird like that sometimes.]

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I have the best friends. Earlier this week, several of us got together to learn all the insider tricks to cutting up a whole chicken.

After we cut them up, we did this:

Which, as you know, is not exactly a health food, but sometimes a girl needs some fried chicken. And, like I’ve said before, at least it was homemade.
We ate the chicken with a potluck of potato salad, deviled eggs, buttermilk biscuits and collard greens, while watching The Help.
Come to think of it, no wonder I’m ya’llin’ y’all today…

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It’s been nearly 24 hours and it’s still snowing. Ya’ll better send over a St. Bernard with a barrel of brandy herbal tea on it’s collar. We may need it to dig us out.

What’s the weather like where you are? And if it’s nice, how do you feel about house guests?

 
Note: If you don’t have sourdough starter, you can easily make some, buy some or if you are local, come get some from me.
Once you’ve got it, feed it flour and water about once a week and you will have starter for years.
Pin It]]> http://franticallysimple.com/2012/03/bacon-sourdough-waffles/feed/ 3 http://franticallysimple.com/2012/02/sourdough-english-muffins/ http://franticallysimple.com/2012/02/sourdough-english-muffins/#comments Tue, 28 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000 Simply Heidi http://franticallysimple.com/?p=4260 Remember when I said something about how I wanted the smell of homebaked bread to transform my dreary February rain into something cozy and lovely? Well, I baked (sort of) and the rain? It stopped.
It was a February miracle!
You voted for what yummy bread product I should try and it was a three-way tie between Whole-Wheat Bagels, Sourdough English Muffins and Rosemary Olive Oil Bread.
Since I have made both rosemary bread and bagels before, since “sourdough” is one of Newt’s spelling words this week, and since she and I both like British classic novels and television shows, the Sourdough English Muffins win.
And since they were delicious and easy to make, I win too!

My inspiration recipe is from Cake Walk, who in turn was inspired by GNOWFGLINS. (Incidentally, can anyone tell me how that is pronounced? I love their work with natural foods, but I can’t tell anyone because I don’t know how. Now-fig-lins? Nofe-flins? G’nowf-glines? Please help me say the word so I can spread the word.)
I didn’t change the recipe itself, but I did tweak the technique just a bit to make things go a little smoother.

Sourdough English Muffins
(Printable version at bottom of page.)

1/2 cup sourdough starter
1 cup liquid: water, whey, milk, yogurt, coconut milk – I made a batch on Saturday with water and another on Sunday (they are that good) with half water and half raw cream. Both were tasty.
2 cups flour, any kind or combination – I used 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat and 1/2 cup regular white
1 Tbs honey
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda

12-24 hours before you plan to make your muffins, mix starter, liquid and flour. I prepare mine the night before. Cover with a clean towel and let it rest, undisturbed at room temperature.
In the morning, or whenever you are ready, sprinkle honey, salt and soda over batter. Wet your hands and knead dough in the bowl to combine ingredients well. If it starts to stick, wet your hands again.
Cover with your towel again and allow to rest for one hour. This will allow all those lovely bubbles to form.
Here is what mine looked like when I was ready to cook.

Yup, cook. These are not really baked, they are cooked on a griddle, like pancakes.
If you have an electric griddle, set it to about 300°. If you are using a stove top griddle or cast iron pan, you may need to play around to see what the best temperature is. Start with a medium/medium-low heat. If they are browning too fast, turn it down and vise-versa.
While your griddle is heating, fill a bowl with warm water and place it close by. Then grease your fancy English muffin rings with butter.
See mine:

Fancy, right? They are just quart sized canning rings.
Place rings, right-side up, on your griddle and put a little pat of butter inside each one to melt.
Take a 1/4 cup measuring cup and dip it in your warm water. This will keep your dough from sticking to it. Scoop up a scant 1/4 cup and place inside a ring. Don’t overfill or it will puff up over the top of your ring and stick.
Wet your fingers and smooth/lightly pat down the dough a bit. Be gentle or you’ll squish out all the bubbles.

Cook for about five minutes. Bottom will be a nice golden brown.
Slide your spatula under muffin, lift it up a little, and using wet fingers, push it out of your ring. Carefully remove hot rings from griddle.
Flip muffins and cook for another five minutes or so.

You can finish the muffins for another 10 minutes or so in a 350° oven, but I didn’t bother since we planned to toast them all anyway.
The muffins have a natural ridge, making them easy to split (use a fork, not a knife). Toast and serve with butter and jam or honey.

This recipe makes 10-12 and is easily doubled. I hear they will last for a week or so, but since we gobbled them up so fast, I can’t attest to it. I also hear they freeze well.
 

Sourdough English Muffins

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Pita Bread

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Whole Wheat Bagels

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Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread

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Rosemary Olive Oil Bread

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Pick one and let me know in the comments.
And hurry!
I can’t wait to look out my steamy kitchen window and wonder how the transformative power of warm bread can make even February rain feel lovely.

*Oh, the irony. The movie: People enjoying the novelty of the internet while a big-box book store drives the independent companies out of business. Today’s reality: People enjoying the novelty of independent book stores while the internet drives the big-box stores out of business. Who would have thunk it?

See what I mean about messy?

Bee in Our Bonnet has the recipe I used, as well as fantastic decorating tips and tricks. The only modification I made to the recipe was using about a teaspoon of grated lemon zest instead of the lemon extract.

We are coming to end of this chicken, but can you believe how far we’ve been able to make it stretch?
Today, we’re talking stock (or broth). Chicken stock is truly a wonderful thing to make. Like my homemade veggie stock, it’s made with the scraps that you would otherwise throw away. At the store stock costs about $3 a quart. One chicken carcass (ew) will make me about a half gallon of stock. Not only is it cost effective, it tastes wonderful – far better than what you could buy, you know exactly what is in it, and costs far less.

Here’s how to make it:
Take your chicken carcass and put it in your largest stock-pot (see why it’s called that now?).
Fill pot with cold water.
Add a generous splash of white or apple cider vinegar. This will help to break down the bones and add more minerals to your stock. Let set for about a half an hour, then add chunks of celery, carrot, onion and garlic. No need to peel anything (even the onion and garlic); just give it a good scrub and a rough chop before dropping it in all the pot.

Turn on burner to high and bring to a good rolling boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for anywhere from 12 to 36 hours, adding more water as necessary. When you see foam forming on the top, skim it off with a spoon and discard.

In the last hour or two of cooking, feel free to throw in some herbs, if desired: parsley and thyme are my favorites.
Warning: Your house will smell wonderful. Make sure you have something good planned for dinner.
After you have simmered your stock for the desired amount of time, remove from heat and allow to cool. This will make it easier to handle.
Strain through a colander. If you prefer a more clear stock, you can line your colander with linen, but I usually don’t bother.
Pick through the bones and separate the meat. Store in fridge or freezer. Discard everything else (even the veggies – there is nothing of value left in the. It’s all in your stock).
There will likely be a layer of fat on the top of your stock. I generally leave it, but if you find that it makes your finished stock too oily, just place the entire bowl in the fridge. The fat will rise to the surface and harden. It can then be picked off and thrown away. (Or used to make chicken gravy.)
I like to put my finished stock in wide mouth quart jars and freeze until needed. Just don’t overfill or they could burst in the freezer. Leave a couple of inches of headroom.
I made soup with our stock for lunch yesterday.
Full disclaimer, this was actually made with turkey stock. The chicken stock wasn’t quite ready, but it smelled so good… I went to the freezer and pulled out some leftover meat and turkey stock I had made after Christmas. While it was thawing, I had Newt cut some kale from the garden. This, I sauteed with celery, carrot, onion and garlic. I added the stock, meat, a handful of pasta (though rice or barley are also good), and salt and pepper.

Lunch was on the table in less time than it would have taken to heat up frozen fish sticks.

If you have never tried cooing a whole chicken before, I hope you are feeling a little more confident about it. None of the dishes I made this week required a whole lot of special skills or equipment, but each one of them tasted great. Go ahead and try it. Don’t be chicken!

Linking with: Making it With Allie, A Crafty Soiree , Works for Me Wednesday and Trendy Treehouse: Create and Share

Besides being tasty, let’s talk about another reason why buying the whole chicken makes sense, or should I say makes cents? That’s right, I’m talking about the $$$.
I bought my chicken, full price, for about $6. Monday night, I made a beautiful and delicious roast chicken; let’s call that meal #1. After dinner, I stripped the remaining meat off the frame and stuck both meat and bones in the fridge.
Yup bones, too, but that’s tomorrow’s post.
Yesterday, just before lunch I pulled out the leftover chicken and got ready for meal #2: Cranberry-Walnut Chicken Salad.

I had about 2 cups of chicken left over, but we are a small family. If you have less left, just estimate and adjust your other ingredients to make the chicken salad. It’s a really forgiving recipe.
If you have no chicken left over, that’s sad. Next time make two chickens. You can’t go wrong with having extra chicken around the house. Besides chicken salad, cooked chicken comes in handy for topping green salads, making wraps or sandwiches, casseroles, soups, chicken enchiladas or burritos, chicken kabobs, chicken-gumbo, chicken fricassee… sorry, I just started channeling Benjamin Buford ‘Bubba’ Blue for a minute.
Anyway, my point is, cooked chicken is a good thing to have around.

Tomorrow, we talk stock.