Weeknight Dinner: An Hour's Work Leads To Days Of Flavor (The Secret Is Sausage And A Freezer)

Pizza made with time

All great meals take time to create, and I have learned that I just need to find a way to bank some time so that I can spend it later.

Pizza makes for an easy weeknight dinner, and it can be special when I have planned ahead.

Don't get me wrong.  I buy dough from Harris Teeter, and it's perfectly fine.  We have eaten many a night by breaking open packages of sauce, mozzarella and turkey pepperoni.

But I can do better -- like a pie with spicy sausage, pesto, and caramelized onions -- and the secret is the freezer.  The freezer for chicken sausage from Whole Foods and pesto that I made when basil was bushy and fragrant last summer.  Add another frozen bag of onions that I caramelized weeks ago while I was cooking other food, and some grated Parmesan made everything come together.  The pizza tasted like days of effort, but we pulled it from the oven less than hour after I came home.

I really believe in taking advantage of the work stored up in sausages, sauces, pickles and similar ingredients.  They're the way to get great flavor on a night when I don't have time.  A few jars or frozen bags are the way to avoid takeout.  Sausage is the perfect example.  You can buy it so many places around Howard County, and that butcher's work can become quick sandwiches, pasta sauces, or pizzas for you.

Giant Campfire Mashmallows For S'Mores

"This is the best dessert in the world." -- Mrs. HowChow.

After living in a house with an electric range, it has been a real treat to get back a gas stove.  And the gas stove is the way to get a real treat.

This is the season of gas stove s'mores -- graham crackers, marshmallow, and a block of Hershey's chocolate.  It has to be Hershey's.  We experimented, even with candy bars that we loved on their own.  We keep coming back to the basics.

Now, we may have found our marshmallow as well.  My mother brought giant Campfire marshmallows from a Wegmans in Fairfax.  They make spectacular s'mores.  I brown the outside, then hold the marshmallow with the graham cracker and twist so that I pull the still-solid center from the crispy, cooked outer section.  That inside goes back on the stove where it bubbles and browns as well.

Perfect.  The two-step method doubles the crispy, browned pieces in the s'more.  The Campfire is truly too large for one graham cracker, but it's fun when marshmallow squirts everywhere.  Definitely a dessert that should come with a wet paper towel chaser.

I found the giant Campfire marshmallows at Harris Teeter.  I bet they're pretty common.

Spicy Chicken Sausage at Harris Teeter

Good food takes time, so the quickest ways to inject flavor are ingredients where other people have already invested time like cured bacon, spiced sausage and pickled vegetables.

I don't remember where I read that thought.  Probably Michael Pollan.  But I do know that the next thing I read was the nutrition box on a package of pork sausage -- 10 grams of fat and 180 calories each.

That's how spicy chicken sausage from Harris Teeter became the new staple in my refrigerator.  They're a quarter the fat and all the flavor of standard sausage, and they have become the base for meal after meal.

Easiest, you just grill them.  On the grill or in a pan, the sausages cook up firm and make an easy dinner with a roll and a side dish.

But often, I press the sausage out of the casing for ad hoc recipes.  Loose, it browns beautifully.  Add a single link to greens like chard.  Add two links to jarred pasta sauce or to top a pizza.  A little fat makes food more rich, and the spicy sausage provides flavor without making anything greasy.  It's versatile.  I crumbled a pound into lasagna -- my go-to recipe when I'm dropping food off for friends.  It's way more flavor and even better texture than the white-meat chicken that had been my first choice in the dish.

You can come up your own outlets for Harris Teeter's chicken sausage.  Now, I keep a few links in the freezer.  With this discovery, I pass on the national-brand sausages because the pork ones have way more fat and the chicken ones are bland, sometimes even mealy.  If I understand right, Harris Teeter makes the sausage in-house and delivers them fresh, never frozen.

HowChow's Chicken Sausage Lasagna


Note: I make lasagna in two disposable aluminum 8x8 pans when I am dropping off food.  One can go straight in the oven, and the other can be frozen for the future.  You could layer a single 9x13 pan instead.  As you'll see below, the ratios are very forgiving so you can adjust.  A little more or less of any ingredient won't hurt.  And a little more spice might fit your tastes.  This is consciously simple.

1 lb. ricotta cheese (low-fat if you want)
1 c. mozzarella cheese
1 egg, beaten
10-16 oz frozen spinach, thawed and pressed to drain water
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp oregano (optional)
1 pound chicken sausage or 1 pound chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 jar (about 32 oz) spaghetti sauce
about 1 lb. uncooked lasagna noodles
1 c. water (split use)

Saute the sausage or the chicken (in a little olive oil, if using chicken) until just cooked through and starting to brown.  Break sausage up.  Take off the heat and set aside.

Mix ricotta, half of the mozzarella, beaten egg and spices.  Add spinach and mix.  Set aside.

Take two 8x8 baking pans and layer both at the same time:  1) one-third of the sauce and the meat, 2) enough noodles to cover the sauce (probably three in each pan with some broken ones to fill gaps), 3) one-half of the spinach/cheese mixture.

Repeat all three layers.  Then top with a third layer of noodles, the rest of the sauce and the remaining mozzarella.

At this point, you could freeze the lasagnas.  Defrost when you want to eat.

To cook, preheat an oven to 350 degrees.  Pour 1/2 c. water down the side of each the lasagna, cover tightly with foil, and bake for 60 to 75 minutes.  The ingredients are all cooked, so you're just waiting until the noodles have softened and the flavors have mixed.  Let stand 15 minutes before slicing.

Cheese On Sale At The Harris Teeter

Harris Teeter has put its specialty cheese on sale through Tuesday -- which mostly brings them back to the realm of reasonably price, but seems worth noting if you wants to try something new.

Emkenton pointed out the sale to me.  We both shop at the Teeter, but that cheese section doesn't have the excitement or prices of our long-delayed dream (or the employees with that seductive enthusiasm that convinces me to try new items):

Just wanted to pass along that all the specialty cheeses at Harris Teeter (which appears to be all cheeses in their case) are 25% off through Tuesday.  I totally missed it when I was in there on Wednesday, but today at KC, they had a big display on ice right at the front of the store.  I've always found their cheeses to be quite expensive so, honestly, 25% off might just get it down to Wegmans prices, but hey-- I'll take what I can get!  Sure makes trying new cheese a little easier on the wallet!

Funny aside:  we really liked a sample of some sort of basil cheese we had in there a few weeks ago, so I asked the lady about it today.  She pointed immediately to a giant wrapped block with "Basil" in huge letters and cut me exactly how much I wanted.  (Which wasn't much since the regular price is $19.99/lb--gulp!)  It wasn't until we walked away that I realized it was Basil's brand smoked cheese.  Just tried it upon getting home and, sure enough, it is not the cheese with basil actually in it that we had sampled.  Oh well.  Glad I like smoked cheese!

(Update: I fixed the first sentence to say "Tuesday," not Thursday.  Thanks em!)

Fage Greek Yogurt - With Honey - At Many Stores

Fage Greek yogurt is fast becoming the breakfast of choice for the sweet tooth in the HowChow household.

Fage is one of many brands pushing new variations on old fashioned yogurt.  Greek yogurts tend to be thicker, often made with cream and milk, and often fewer unprounceable ingredients.

Fage meets those standards. The yogurt is made from nothing more than milk, cream and active cultures.  Then, Fage adds honey.  Or it adds a little container of honey next to the container of yogort.  You spoon the honey on top, and it's creamier, sweeter and more natural than the supermarket brands that you grew up on.

It's also more expensive.  Pushing $2 each.  But that's a small price to pay if it actually gets you to eat breakfast in the morning.

You can find Fage at many stores.  I bought at Harris Teeter in Fulton and Columbia, Roots in Clarksville, and Whole Foods in Baltimore.  (Update: Comment below says some Giants and Safeways have Fage as well.)  We found more varieties as the store got more expensive -- two or three at Harris Teeter, a half dozen at Roots and then all those varieties plus the ellusive chery at Whole Foods.

(Update: Check the comments for a yogurt recipe and several other options.  I thought yesterday's yellow peppers were a great find, but the local passion seems to focus on yogurt!  As always, thanks for the comments.)

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter At Giant / HTeeter

No one should spend $5 on a jar of peanut butter, but your sweet tooth might push the purchase of Peanut Butter & Co.’s natural varieties.

In theory, I’m a fan of fresh peanut butter.  In reality, I never loved the taste or the endless stirring of oil that floats to the top of the jar.  Peanut Butter & Co. offers a middle ground where the peanut butter tastes delicious and comes without industrial ingredients like hydrogenated oil.

Not that this is health food.  PB & Co’s palm oil will clog an artery, and PB & Co. adds sugar and chocolate as well.  These are thick, sweet spreads – standing out more as a adult ingredient than beating Jif crunchy in a PB&J sandwich.  A heaping spoonful of Cinnamon Raisin Swirl or the Dark Chocolate Dreams turns sliced apple into dessert.  You could jazz up oatmeal or bake great cookies.

In the end, peanut butter isn’t a deep-thought food.  We really like this stuff.  We really like the texture of the Cinnamon Raisin Swirl.  It tastes more homemade – or at least it did until I just tasted it again for this post and wondered whether the texture is actually crystals of sugar.  We don’t want to know.

See the comments below.  Peanut Butter & Co.’s varieties are available in Harris Teeter and at Giant.  They’re also available at Whole Foods.

Harris Teeter: Crazy Time In Produce

April Fool's Day comes off-season at Harris Teeter -- where they appear to be offering subtle humor in the produce section.

They're selling baby cauliflower. For $1.99. EACH.

That's right. Cauliflower just larger than a cherry for $1.99 each. They come in three colors, which is just so special. But they're smaller than a jalepeno pepper. This must be humor, right?

You're looking at $10 for a single side dish. You're looking at $40 for the entire display at the new Maple Lawn store on Rte 216, and that might feed a family of four. If that family liked cauliflower more than, say, an entire dinner of steak, vegetables,

La Brea bread, and dessert because that would actually be cheaper.

Hey, I'm a fan of Harris Teeter's exotic's fruits, but even I asked the produce guy if it was supposed to be $1.99 pound. He said no. He said he was surprised as well.

If you really want cool vegetables, check out my post about vegetable shopping in Howard County. That is part of my "What I Learned" series.

Exotic Fruit at Harris Teeter

I proposed to my wife on a pomegranate and checked her out on our first-date test with a plastic bag of lychees.

Seriously. My mother was surprised to learn that I packed lychees on a first date when I'd been invited to go kayaking. Some people might not like lychees, she said. That had been exactly the point. I was looking for a woman eager to try new things. Mrs. HowChow popped open the little fruit as we paddled on Centennial Lake four years ago today. She hinted that I was passing her test by saying that she hoped we could try other fruit together like pomegranate in the fall. (Thus, a pomegranate bouquet the first time that I met her at the airport and a pomegranate surprise when I gave her a ring.)

So we like Harris Teeter. The produce section is good, better than an average Giant or Safeway. But the truly unique options are on a small table where Harris Teeter sells unusual - and often very expensive -- fruit. The photo is a cherimoya, a tropical fruit with a creamy inside and a flavor that hints of strawberry, banana and more when it is really good. That one was good, and it had better be because I think I paid $6 or $8. But the Harris Teeter exotic fruits are an occasional treat, and you need to go big or just go home with something mundane like baby bananas that you could get at the H Mart anyway. When they're ripe, cherimoyas will remind you that life can be sweet any time that we take a risk and try something new. Thanks for four years of my new life, Mrs. HowChow.

If you're waiting for the Harris Teeter in Maple Lawn, click here for the latest news. If you like great fruit, definitely check of the Asian grocery stores for lychees, longan, melons and more. If you want to identify the fruit that you find there, check out this Web site.

Harris Teeter

8620 Guilford Rd
Columbia, MD 21046-1404
(410) 290-5902

NEAR: This is south of Rte 32 and east of Rte 29. King's Contrivance has the new Harris Teeter, a Bagel Bin, and a CVS. Take the Eden Brook Drive / Shaker Drive exit from Rte 32. Follow the signs south to Eden Brook Drive, which goes right past King's Contrivance.

Harris Teeter in Fulton Update #3

The Harris Teeter in Fulton is scheduled to open at 5:30 pm, October 6, 2009, according to the Maple Lawn developer.

(Update -- Click here for the latest news on Harris Teeter in Maple Lawn.)

Stuart Greenbaum spoke at last night's Maple Lawn annual meeting, and he said that Harris Teeter on Rte 216 has that official start date five months in the future. Like me, he says that the store looks like they could open far sooner. He says the developers have finished their work on the site, and they would love Harris Teeter to open before October. But the schedule has some connection to Harris Teeter's fiscal year.

Harris Teeter's parent company appears to have a fiscal year that starts October 1.

In other Maple Lawn news, the developers said they're in talks with two people about replacing the Daily Grind coffee shop with a morning/breakfast restaurant. Mrs. HowChow would love a Starbucks. No one mentioned the name of the possible tenant, but Greenbaum talked about how Starbucks is closing stores, so that dream doesn't appear likely. They said they hope to have some news in a few weeks because they want that site occupied for their commercial tenants.

Harris Teeter in Fulton Update #2

To me, the Harris Teeter in Maple Lawn looks like it should open in Summer 2009 -- not the Fall 2009 that I have seen in official announcements.

On Saturday, the store had plate glass windows that were new since our last visit on Easter. Outside, the parking lot is lined and mostly landscaped. Inside, you could see signs for the different departments, which suggests that they're deep into interior construction. People were working on Saturday, which meant Mrs. HowChow wasn't dying to snap a photo out of the car window.

Of course, I was overly optimistic about construction at the Fatburger. But I can't believe Harris Teeter wants an empty store sitting around all summer. Anyone know more? (Update: Kristin comments below that a cashier at the Kings Contrivance Harris Teeter told her Maple Lawn will open in October. That seems so far away!)

Click here for the latest news on Harris Teeter in Maple Lawn.

Harris Teeter in Fulton Update

The exterior of the Harris Teeter in Maple Lawn appears to be almost finished, although I can't find anything predicting an opening before Fall 2009.

Maple Lawn has built the roads for an entire shopping area off Rte 216 in Fulton. Mrs. HowChow and I drove around on Easter Sunday. You can wind your way all the way around the Harris Teeter and through an area that will one day host a collection of other stores. It even connects to the existing commercial area.

The Harris Teeter's brick exterior looks complete. The entryway is covered with plywood, so you can't see inside. But the parking spots have been painted, and the outside looks cleaned up, swept, and even landscaped in spots. It looks like one contractor finished its portion of the job. Anyone know more?

Click here for the latest news on Harris Teeter in Maple Lawn.

Looney's South and Harris Teeter in Fulton

The new Looney's South in Maple Lawn is flying leprechaun awnings outside, but the indoors is still a moving-day jumble of chairs, tables and ladders. The last I heard was that "soft opens" should start this week. Does anyone know more?

Looney's fills the hole where Trapeze closed last year. Looney's sent me an email saying they'll open March 12, and people are already advertising a "grand opening" party in Fulton on March 14, 2009 hosted by 98 Rock. That means they'll be safely open for St. Patrick's Day on the 17th.

(Update on March 18: Looney's is now open and people are leaving reviews in the comments below. The opening week crowds were huge, and I hope business is rubbing off on neighbors like imWine.)

Although the Daily Grind coffee shop closed last weekend, Maple Lawn is also getting the second Harris Teeter in Howard County. The Maple Lawn Web site has a press release saying that market will open in Fall 2009. That is the construction site to the west of Maple Lawn Boulevard on Rte 216. The walls were up when I drove past last weekend. No windows or anything that looks like a supermarket yet. For the latest on Harris Teeter, click here for News on Harris Teeter.