At Least I've Got My Kids Fooled

(Alternative Title: Secrets of a Short-Cut Chef)

About two weeks ago, Josh came home from school quite excited, as his class was having a pot luck for Cinco de Mayo, and he'd promised them I'd bring his favorite - "Mexican beans."

After I found out that he did, in fact, mean refried beans, I had to tell him that I don't know how to make them, really. He told me to just make them as I usually do.

So that Monday morning I got up and opened up two large cans of Rosarita refried beans that I'd purchased the night before at WalMart and I plopped them into my Micro-Cooker. I do not use the word plop here lightly, but quite accurately, because that's exactly what canned refried beans do when faced with an open-ended can and the pull of gravity: they slurp for a moment as they slide out and then they plop into the dish, maintaining their can-shape right down to the grooves on the side.

I stirred them well, so at least they wouldn't look like they'd just plopped out of a can, put the lid on, and attached a note with microwaving instructions (just in case it was another 3rd grader who'd be in charge of heating up the Mexican beans). A quick check in the fridge showed that I still had half a bag of Fiesta shredded cheese, so I told Josh that he could fancy it up a bit and sprinkle it over the warmed beans.

When I picked Josh up from school that day, he was so thrilled. He said everyone raved about my Mexican beans. He went on to the point where I began to feel guilty and I said, "I didn't do anything - I just took them out of a can." Chris chimed in: "Well you cooked them at least, right?" No. I didn't even cook them.

I was thinking about this tonight because Christianne just commented on how good the chicken is in my chicken parmesan dish that I made for supper. Here's a second confession from a short-cut chef. I love chicken parmesan but I hate spending too much time in the kitchen when I could be doing so many other things - papercrafting, reading, blogging... so a couple of months ago as I examined my chicken parmesan in Fazoli's, I realized how simple it really would be to make.

I boiled up some spaghetti noodles as I finished the latest chapter in my book. As they finished cooking, I microwaved some breaded, boneless chicken patties that are pre-made and found in the freezer section - where else? - at WalMart. (In fact, I even use the WalMart's Great Value brand.) Then I microwaved a can of spaghetti sauce. Mind you, once the water comes to a boil, the entire dish is created in less than 10 minutes. Assembly is simple: a scoop of noodles, topped with some sauce, then some pre-shredded mozzarrella cheese, the chicken patty, more sauce, and more cheese. Have you honestly ever made something so fancy, so quickly? (If so, let me know, so I can add it to my repertoire!)

I have to say I love to spend more time eating the dinner than it takes to make it.

And finally, my third confession of a recent short-cut recipe is inspired from our childhood. :) When we were small, from time to time my mom and grandma would pile Deb and I into the back seat of Gram's green Granada and we'd head to Redondo Beach to spend a chunk of the day with my great-grandma, our Grandma Mac. There are so many things I could tell you about those trips - from playing the alphabet game on the freeway until we got there (I was the least blind so often pretty good at it; Mom and Gram knew where certain signs would be and could anticipate where they'd find that X), to the way the white paint peeled off the sides of her house, to the way you weren't exactly level when you sat on Grandma Mac's only potty. But if I told you all of those things, I would surely digress. ;)

One of the best things about visiting Grandma Mac was bursting through her side entrance into her house and smelling her fresh, homemade coffee cake. Oh man, it's been more than 25 years since I've had that, and I can still just about remember how it tasted.

Well, Deb reminded me of Grandma Mac's coffee cake while she was visiting last weekend, and I set out to make it... although since my family was only here for a few days I didn't want to spend all day trying to figure out the dough and such. I remembered something I'd tried a number of years ago that was successful... and it worked. Ergo, we had Grandma Mac's Coffee Cake a la Short-cut.

I purchased white bread dough in the frozen bread section (of the market this time, lol) - three loaves to a package, and let it defrost in the fridge overnight. In the morning I took the dough out and begin pulling it into small handfuls of varying sizes and rolling it into balls. I rolled each ball in melted butter and then in cinnamon sugar (and you could follow with chopped nuts if desired), and threw them all into a sprayed Bundt pan. I baked it at 350* for, I don't know, 40 minutes to an hour. Excellent.

Maybe you've already done all these shortcuts and it just takes me awhile longer to figure things out... it certainly wouln't be the first time. But maybe not, and if not, I hope you'll try them out - the coffee cake and the chicken parmesan, at least. ;)