Tuesday: Pierogies sauteed with radish tops + garlic, German red cabbage, sourdough crackers with cream cheese + pepper jam
Notes: I do not boil frozen commercial pierogies anymore. Just thaw them for an hour or few at room temperature, then saute until they get some nicely browned edges and are hot through. I like to saute them with onions and apples, but here I had some radish tops and was short on onions. So I improvised!
Wednesday: polenta & eggs from Smitten Kitchen Everyday, French bread + olive oil, sauteed kale with garlic & lime, black bean brownies + the last little bit of mint choc chip ice cream
Notes: It took almost 30 minutes to bake the eggs when the recipe implied it would take only a few minutes. No evening commitments tonight, so it didn't matter. Flavor was worth it, though!
Also, if you chop the kale stems very thinly and put them in the hot pan for 5-10 minutes by themselves with the lid on, they will be tender enough to eat with the sauteed leaves. It's a small thing I do to cut down on food waste.
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| Thawing for supper. |
Thursday: chicken tikka masala in the slow cooker from Stock the Crock with swiss chard as well; turmeric brown rice; nigella seed naan; pear chutney; pickled lemons
Notes: If I'm making a saucy stew with a flavorful sauce, I usually bulk it up with vegetables to capture the sauce.
Also, I mixed the nigella seed directly into the naan dough this time because it kept falling off when I sprinkled it on top in previous batches. Success!
I'm working on using my little jars of canned goodness. Hence the spiced grape butter on Monday, pepper jam on Tuesday, and chutney here.
Friday: pepperoni/onion pizza, fancy mushroom pizza with white sauce and truffle oil, radish top and green olive pizza; chips!!! frozen peaches
Notes: The fancy mushrooms are from a local farm who normally sells to restaurants. My husband gave me truffle oil and truffle salt for Christmas - I am totally hooked. I tried to recreate a mushroom pizza from a local restaurant I love and I'm very pleased with my version - except that I forgot to put salt in the dough when I mixed it up which shows the state of my brain these days.
Saturday: take-out Chinese!
Notes: We rarely buy take-out or go to restaurants as a family, but we wanted to support our favorite local Chinese place. It was a total treat - a break from the heavy-duty cooking I do and so delicious.
Lemony Mashed Potatoes
I got the recipe from Jennifer, who got it from Melissa Clark. I don't really consider it a salad, and this is how I make it.
Boil until very tender:
2 1/2 -3 lbs. chopped potatoes with skin on
While they are cooking, mix together in bowl:
zest & juice of 1 lemon
1/3 c. olive oil
2 Tbsp. mayo
1 Tbsp. grainy mustard
1 tsp. dried rosemary
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1/2 c. sliced scallions
Drain potatoes. Gently pour hot potatoes on mixture and mash with a potato masher until thoroughly mixed. Serve immediately while hot or let sit and serve at room temperature.
10 comments:
You are such a clever and inventive cook! I'm impressed! I will give myself a tiny pat on the back for making a risotto with a combination of rice. I only had a half cup of arborio so I added in a half cup of brown. First I soaked the brown rice for an hour or two, then I microwaved it for a couple of minutes. Drained off the water and threw it in with the arborio. It worked! I was very pleased with the result. (The risotto also contained chicken, asparagus and preserved lemon. Yum!)
Other than that, it's mostly been sandwiches... LoL.
The lemony mashed potatoes sound so good, and so different. I will try it! Phoebe is awfully cute. Your Tuesday menu has got my mouth watering - I always boil pierogi (a plural word, btw - I'm half Polish) and then brown 'em in a skillet, because just doing it in the pan seemed to result in them being rather tough. It's rather a drawn-out affair that way - so yours were okay just thawing and in the skillet? I may try that next time. We don't have them that often, but for a change...
Lisa, thanks for the plural information! I don't think the pierogi were tough, although this time I did accidentally get them more browned than I intended. The toughness might depend on the brand, too?
Oh, that is clever with the mixture of brown and arborio rice! I will keep that in mind.
THANK YOU for the creativity boost and renewed motivation. Your beautiful photos and food ideas came just as I was losing the will to keep cooking. We have been eating mostly egg pie and radish greens (WHY DID I PLANT SO MANY RADISHES?) because I temporarily forgot I love food, cooking, and my kitchen.
I started writing down all our dinners this year as a record. Last week was a lot of beans & greens. I really need to get a little more creative with it.
Happy to help ;) and I dearly love hearing what is for supper in other homes, too. A farmer told me that roasted radishes are good. I've never tried it because I never had a boatload to mess with! Good luck with your boatload!
Or maybe not - if the people aren't complaining and the cook is managing. . .
Great menus! I recently made Jamie Oliver's Chutney on flatbread with eggs and it was great! You might try that one. The flatbread is really easy just flour, a little yogurt, olive oil, and cook in a skillet. I may have to try that as a pizza base. Sounds like you helped a well-diversified menu oh, good for you!
Oooh, thanks for the recommendation. That sounds delish!
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