Traverse City Record-Eagle

Sally Ketchum: In The Kitchen

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September 7, 2008

In the Kitchen: Planning dinner around school

By SALLY KETCHUM

Autumn is mainly a back-to-school time for me, even though I'm not in a classroom, learning or teaching. When my three kids were young it seemed that, like many moms now, I was in and out of school nearly daily, busy with PTA projects, sports boosters, or helping room mothers. I loved it!

But back to school also means hectic days with different schedules for different kids. We are so busy nowadays, and also, it seems more kids are determined "to do it all," and kids doing all is mighty hard on the parents, especially working mothers. Fatigue after a hard day can leave even the most creative, brainiest of cooks left with that question, "What can I fix for dinner?"

Since September is also a harvest month, some kitchens are running the canning and freezing marathon now. While putting food by for winter, it's easy to raid the bounty for a few meals for the immediate future. It's easy to make partial meals for convenience when there is little time to cook. This means family-sized packets of vegetables in various forms, tomato sauces with herbs or spices that will sauce pasta or be the basis of chili, packets of soup starters to freeze, ready to thaw-heat-and eat soups, and even some casseroles to freeze. (Before baking, sprinkle with crumbs and dot with butter.)

A family might even get the kids involved, and make "prep packages" on a weekend night with everyone working in assembly line fashion. It's fun and also a reason to get the family together.

Years ago, we tried to bring everyone together once a week for "family meetings" to discuss individual concerns. (Our kids dreaded family meetings because they thought we parents always bullied them. Probably true... until the kids took high school debate.) At one of these meetings, we decided that we would make a loose plan for a week's dinners, nothing set in cement or spaghetti sauce, of course, but a plan with a general entree category for each day in the week. This time, the kids' input was important, and their input made the plan successful. The results went something like this:

Monday: Pasta Night. A pasta, a vegetable, a toss salad, and bread (usually hard rolls). Pasta with red sauce, or Alfredo, or white clam or perhaps a creamy seafood sauce.

Tuesday: Kids' Choice. But they had to declare their choice on Sunday, giving the cook shopping time. This was often hot potato salad because each child could pick out his favorite part, the sweet-sour potatoes, bell peppers, onions, or sausage, etc.

Wednesday: Ethnic cuisine. Usually easy Mexican, but sometimes Polish (goulash), English (fish and chips), Italian (meatballs in red sauce), Russian (stroganoff), etc. A slaw, fruit or salad completed the meal.

Thursday: One-Pot/One Item Dinners. Stew, chicken or beef pies, pasties, clam and corn chowder, or corned beef. (Why do some folks only have corned beef on St. Patrick's Day? Tip: For the few extra cents, choose flat cut over point cut. Flat cut means savings in the end in use and ease for leftovers.)

Friday: Easy Night. Pizza, Sloppy Joes, grilled cheese sandwiches or the cook's favorite easy dish.

Saturday: Surprise Day. Anything goes! Even eating together, but with modern Saturdays, it usually means fast food or filled-at-home sack lunches or picnic hampers, food to be eaten after hockey or soccer practice or on the way to friends. The best surprise: the family cooking together when the day's events are over.

Sunday: Usually do-it-yourself breakfast with foods laid out. A mid-day Sunday dinner, a pot roast, stuffed pork chops, or steak on the grill, but a meal with a starch, vegetables (maybe two), relishes, and dessert (might be just cookies). Snacks or sandwiches in the evening.

As I cooked those busy back to school days and through the long school year, our family routine gradually altered the original plan. Plans for certain nights faded. Monday wasn't always pasta because we often had leftovers from Sunday, a day I like to cook. But Easy Night Friday stuck: It's high school football night in northern Michigan! We are empty nesters now, but Friday is still Easy Night for us, and it's a great way to start a fall weekend. Still, I have our old entree-for-the-day plan perking along in the back of my mind. I'm lucky; I never have to ask, "What can I fix for dinner?"

(The recipe for this delicious cake is printed again since the amount of vegetable oil was omitted earlier. Apologies! It is a delightful cake.)

Fuzzy Navel Cake

Vegetable oil pray for misting pans

Flour for dusting pans

1 package (18.25 oz.) plain yellow cake mix

1 package (5.1 oz.) vanilla instant pudding mix

1/2 c. vegetable oil

3/4 c. peach schnapps

1/2 c. fresh orange juice or from carton

4 large eggs

1/2 t. orange extract

Glaze: 1 c. confectioners' sugar, sifted; 4 T. orange juice, 2 t. peach schnapps.

(Note: If you use a cake mix with pudding, eliminate the pudding in the ingredients.

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly mist a 12-cup bundt pan with vegetable oil spray, and then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pan aside.

Place the cake mix, the pudding mix, peach schnapps, oil, orange juice, eggs, and orange extract in a large mixing bowl. Stop the machine and blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look think and smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. Place the pan in the oven.

Bake the cake until it is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. Run a long, sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert it only a serving platter.

Mix the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl. Mix well. Poke holes in the cake with a skewer and spoon glaze over the warm cake, drizzling down its sides. Cool completely before slicing.

-- Anne Bryn "The Cake (Mix) Doctor"

Sally Ketchum is a northern Michigan author and journalist. Readers can meet Ketchum at Horizon Books, Sept. 27, 2-4 p.m. where she will sign "Bread Garden," her new book, a middle reader and a San Francisco Writers Conference prize-winning novel.

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