Back to School, Busy Night Casseroles, and a Basic White Sauce

It’s September.  The kids are back to school and hockey is back on the calendar.  The weekend before school started I made the mistake of asking the kids to clean their rooms.  I ended up with eleven loads of laundry.  

Someone needs to kick my photo-a-day-arse because I've been missing plenty of photo opportunities despite the charming capture of Laundrygate.  I managed the obligatory back to school photos, four out of six anyway... although I find as the kids get older they get decidedly more scowly.  

I'm getting up earlier to pack lunches, and discovering that it's still dark... which strikes me as the most depressing thing about fall.

I know there's plenty to love about fall, but right now I'm in an end of summer funk.  

As hard as it is to let summer go, it’s time to welcome some structure and routine back into our lives.  A big part of that is dinnertime.  Something nourishing, and on the table shortly after everyone gets home from work and school, yet quick and easy enough for the nights when we’re heading right back out the door.  I’ll often throw together some kind of a casserole, combining meat, veggies, and grain or pasta… making it up as I go along.  Unfortunately, many casserole recipes call for some version of a creamed soup in a can.  I’ve used them in the past, and I’d be lying if I said I’d never use them again (our favourite tuna casserole depends on cream of mushroom soup), but I've come up with a slightly less convenient, healthier option which I have been using more and more often.

I'm sharing it with you, because I know I'm not the only casserole lover out there that wants to kick the canned soup addiction.  It's not exactly a recipe... more a basic framework that's easily modified based on what's in the fridge or cupboard.

It's a super simple, basic white sauce.  I started making this as a pasta topping when the cost of the fresh Alfredo sauce at the grocery store crept past the $10 mark for the two containers needed to feed eight of us.  A simple roux of butter and flour, some milk, seasonings and cheese will give you an amazing multi-purpose sauce.  

Use cream and Parmesan with a dash of nutmeg for a cheesy, creamy Alfredo.  Or Cheddar for homemade macaroni and cheese.   I recently discovered the shaved Parmesan at Costco and I am loving it... I could eat it right out of the container (okay, I DID eat some straight up), it’s that good.

Add generous amounts of basil and garlic, some cooked chicken, steamed broccoli, and cooked rice or quinoa for the casserole that comes in at a close second to our beloved tuna casserole.

This one’s also really good. Lean ground beef and onions scramble fried with Montreal Steak Spice, mix in the white sauce with some steamed green beans, and add a scalloped potato topping.  Or skip the potatoes and combine with pasta.  Delicious either way.

We do a seafood version too.  Sauteed scallops and shrimp are added to the sauce along with a bag of steamed mixed veggies and served over pasta.

The ingredient combinations are limitless, and easy to adapt to personal preferences.  Here's how I whip up an easy, multi-purpose white sauce:

Using your favourite whisk, mix up a basic roux with equal parts melted butter and flour until well combined.  This it not my favourite whisk, it's my second favourite.  My favourite whisk was nowhere to be seen and I later found it in the backyard.  I don't want to know why.  I'm glad my dishwasher has a sanitize setting.

Once the rue is bubbling and golden, slowing pour in milk, whisking constantly while it thickens.  Once you've achieved a nice smooth consistency, add some seasoning.  This is the batch that went into the quinoa, chicken, broccoli concoction so it's heavy on basil, with a dash of Worchestire sauce, some minced garlic and a dash of nutmeg.

And here's my beloved Parmesan.  Once you've seasoned your sauce you can add the cheese.  Your sauce will thicken as the cheese melts, so keep whisking and add milk as needed.  I find myself adding milk frequently throughout the entire process as it has a tendency to keep thickening even as it sits.

Basic White Sauce

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

1 cup milk

dash salt

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter.  Whisk in flour until smooth and well combined.  Gradually pour in milk, whisking constantly.  Season, add more milk as needed until desired consistency is reached.  That's it!

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Moving Discoveries and the Process of Purging

I recently discovered that I am the proud owner of 17 vases.  Not to mention countless mugs.

This move has provided a golden opportunity to purge and begin the process of simplifying.  When you come across a box while packing that hasn’t been UNpacked in three cross-country moves containing, among other things, a GLASS jar of mayonnaise (no modern day plastic here, thank you very much) that expired in 1989, you know it’s time to get rid of a few things.

Side note - the mayonnaise seemed to be well preserved and appeared to look quite normal, but we didn't open it to find out.

Seriously, some of the boxes we had in our basement had stickers on them from multiple moving companies.  Obviously we didn't really need whatever was in them.

There’s an ugly word that sometimes gets thrown around our house, usually when someone is frantically searching through the ever-present paper pile on the kitchen counter….or more recently, when a box of VHS movies made their way into the basement (we don’t even own a VCR anymore).

HOARDER.

I knew before we started packing that there were a lot of things that needed to go.  Knowing and DOING, however, are two entirely different things.   It’s not easy to find the time needed to sort through a lifetime’s worth of accumulated stuff.  Moving has forced me to make the time and start the process of purging.

Just to be clear, I am not one of those last-week’s-lunch-under-the-coffee-table kind of hoarders.  We don’t have 27 cats and I don’t need to walk through a sea of garbage to get to the kitchen sink.  I am the other kind of hoarder, the I-can’t-throw-it-away-if-it-has-sentimental-value kind of hoarder.  The thought of throwing away handmade Mother’s Day cards, kindergarten report cards, maps from our last family vacation, twenty year old programs from The Phantom and Les Mis, prom tickets, kids’ artwork, or any other kind of memorabilia just stresses me out.  Interestingly, being surrounded by clutter also stresses me out.  You see my dilemna. 

I am digging deep and finding my way through the process of purging while preserving.  It’s tricky and complicated and I wish I had started this a helluva long time ago.

If I was at the beginning of this journey with children, I would take photos of artwork and memorabilia to store electronically, keeping selected pieces to frame and/or scrapbook.  But twenty years ago we hadn’t yet entered this digital age, and developing film was expensive, so photography was much more selective.  You would have never caught me taking a picture of a plate of nachos or a cup of coffee.   I won’t part with all of the treasures my children have created over the years, but I do plan to digitally catalogue them so it will be easier to let most of them go.

When the kids were small, I kept every scrap of clothes to hand down to the next in line.  If it didn’t fit anyone right then, it would surely fit someone eventually.  Perfectly reasonable, yes?  Now they’re older, more fashion conscious, with different body types and personalities.  They aren’t wearing a whole lot of big brother’s clothing anymore…. so why are there 31 pairs of jeans waiting to be sorted into closets?  17 hoodies?  And this is AFTER having made multiple runs to Goodwill before we moved.  

Pokemon cards.

POGS.

Crazy Bones.

Beanie Babies.

Rocks.

Shells.

Kids love to collect, and these kids were champion collectors when they were small. 

Books.   Lotsa books.

We have a lot of stuff.  There are, after all, eight people living in this house.  I know some of this stuff can go, but it would be unrealistic to expect to see it all gone.  I can’t bring myself to be a complete minimalist because there is an emotional attachment to many of the things we own.  But I can find a way to trim it back and better manage what we do choose to keep.

This is going to be an interesting journey.

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It's OK Thursday

It’s OK…

…that we slept in yesterday and missed early morning hockey practice

…that I haven’t started Christmas shopping yet

…that number-one-son’s puppy chewed one of my favourite shoes

…that I was so out of it one morning this week that I washed my hair with conditioner

…that I’m still wearing flip-flops despite the fact that we’ve had snow since the weekend

…that I ran the dryer for an extra 10 min three times last night to avoid folding laundry

…that I got home from work last night and couldn’t see my kitchen counter

…that I forgot today was garbage day

…that I was .12 cents short for my coffee at the drive-thru this morning but got my coffee anyway.  Thank you Tim Horton’s!

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