Sunday: take-out pizza, pasta, fried calamari and mushroom arugula salad with a friend
Monday (tonight): prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, scalloped potatoes, tomato gratin, baked beans, sweet potatoes with oranges, pecans and maple syrup, maroulosalata, store bought crème caramel for the dining companions. I make more at the beginning of the week so there’s food for my dining companions’ lunches.
Tuesday: tuna cakes, I might finally try to make fish chops. Roasted beets. Fruit salad
Wed: lemon oregano chicken, salad
Thu: lamb, maybe the Ottolenghi Shawarma rub
Fri: salmon, probably the Bonnie Stern recipe I like.
Spring is coming. I have spinach, kale, and lettuce starts growing in the greenhouse, and will be planting a few rows of shelling peas this weekend. Our seed potatoes are sprouting, and will be planted soon. I am looking ahead to Last Frost, which in our area is March 12. After that, things will start to get busier in the garden.
I’ll be planting a few extra tomato and basil plants this year. After learning last season how to make @jammy’s blender tomato soup from fresh produce, I learned over the winter that it is almost as excellent using our home-canned roasted tomato puree and frozen basil blocks (and no blender required, as all the work has already been done). I’ve blown through practically our entire stock of both tomato puree and basil this winter making this easy and delicious soup. I’ll be making effort this summer to have plenty on hand for next year.
No project cooking this week, but a week of go-to recipes. Cooking for two adults in the PNW:
Jealous! Last week you were grilling, now this week you are planting vegetables. It’s so cold in Ottawa today, even the snowmen need sweaters Mind you, it’s unusually cold today… I love reading your posts and I’m always inspired to hear about your gardening and cooking adventures.
I need a greenhouse. Maybe I just need to move to somewhere warmer. I’m glad you’re enjoying the soup. I think a big bowl of that would be just the ticket on a day like this.
Hi, all! Cooking for 2 in Chattanooga, where we’re riding that February weather roller coaster…
Friday, February 21: Spinach and artichoke soup in bread bowls from Family
Breakfast: King cake from Cook’s Country. It’s a week early, but then again, it’s been king cake season for the last month…
Saturday: Seafood pot-au-feu from Around my French Table–or a riff on that as an excuse to use up some of the random bits of seafood in my freezer; baguette, coconut rice pudding
Sunday: Having people over for pasta–a meat and a veggie bolognese and more king cake. Hopefully someone will contribute a vegetable of some sort.
Monday: Scrounge
Tuesday: Peppers, beans, and eggs
Wednesday-Friday: TBD
Hope everyone is staying warm. Happy cooking!
Hello friends. We are now digging out from two snowstorms. We had one last Thursday as I mentioned in last week’s post then another one on Sunday. I had a day visit to an art gallery planned on Sunday so when I was ready to leave home at 10:00 am on Sunday morning the plows had already been by and even though it had started snowing overnight, it was snowing lightly and there was only a dusting of snow on the sidewalks. When I was ready to leave at 2:30 the snow was really coming down and the plows hadn’t been back. I had to run up to a nearby grocery store to pick up a few items after my gallery visit so I bought whatever I thought I’d need for the next few days then head home by bus. I’d normally walk since it’s only 20 or 25 minutes by foot from that grocery store to home but enough snow had accumulated it felt like walking in quicksand. Apparently we got another 37 cm/ 14 inches of snow on Sunday and they mentioned on the news earlier this week between the two storms last weekend we got 70 cm/28 inches of snow in total and that it would take up to three weeks to plow away all this snow. I normally work from home on Mondays however my boss messaged me Monday morning and said if I had difficulty getting to work that day I could work remotely. I took a look outside and it didn’t look like the plows had been by my neighbourhood at all so I just stayed at home for the day. I went to the office on Tuesday and even though the plows had been out by then, they had only plowed some of the roads and sidewalks in a random fashion and I had to leap over snowbanks of varying heights to get there. I thought of taking the bus home, but there was so much traffic on the road and no sign of snow plows, downtown was gridlocked so I walked home anyway.
Onto my menus for this week:
Today: My take-out lunch today was sushi. I haven’t had sushi in ages and one of the grocery stores in my area has some really nice sushi and a lot of choices. After dithering for 10 minutes I finally picked a Black Dragon maki. There was the usual cucumber and julienned carrots in it as well as avocado, crab sticks and shrimp as well as a fish draped on top of each slice. A google search tells me it is eel. There is a list of ingredients on the take-out container but the printing is too small for my middle aged eyes I will have a salad for dinner.
Sunday: Up in the air. I found a ramen type recipe in a Laotian cookbook I borrowed from the library last winter, I photocopied it then misplaced it. I plan on going to the library on Sunday afternoon so shall borrow the book again and try the recipe. The recipe calls for doctoring up Mamma brand instant noodles and these Asian style instant noodles seem to be gaining popularity these days. I had already bought a package of the soup called for so I just need to figure out if I have the remaining ingredients. I’m normally not a fan of instant soups since they taste salty to me so I’m going to try this one packet to see if I like it.
Wednesday: A stirfry dish using some of the ground turkey I have in the freezer. I was going to make ground turkey and asparagus following this recipe. However our out-of-season asparagus is in the $8/lb range right now so I may decide to pivot to this recipe instead.
Southwestern Ontario’s last frost is usually the last week of May. We usually used to wait until June 1st to plant most vegetables.
I’ve been gambling with seed the last 5 years, planting some things as soon as the crocuses come up in March. And replanting after most snowfalls between March and June.
Hi everyone, hope you’re well. This week has been quite a month, if you know what I mean. I’m off to Spain tomorrow though, and very happy and excited about that. A midweek snowstorm cancelled a doctors visit that I really would have liked to have over before my trip, along with lots of other, fun, things in my week. Trying to stay cheerful during a pretty ugly time in the world; not always succeeding. Dry January very much over. Here is what we ate this week:
Mon: penne with endive, Gorgonzola, and walnuts
Tues: the second half of the Charlie sauce from recipetin eats. Added sriracha and some ginger, and used broth instead of water, and that brought it way up for me. Shrimp, bok choy, cashews, over rice.
Wed: clam chowder with some chicken sausages I had leftover. Wonderful on a snowy night
Thurs: turkey and havarti subs, sliced peppers on the side
A list of actuals and this weekend plans. Cooking for 2 adults and 2 kids in the midwest. No restrictions but trying to up our salad intake and lower our takeout intake.
Monday: Pasta with clams and shrimp (Nothing Fancy), finally got around to it, bagged TJs caesar salad
For some reason whenever I cook shrimp it turns out unpalatable. I think it’s a me problem.
I hope you have wonderful trip to Spain and that the change of scene helps. I desperately need a change of scene given the last few months and especially the last few weeks. A friend here in the Boston area had a wonderful trip to Andalucía last month and I hope yours is as good as hers. Mine won’t be to Spain, unfortunately, but I’m working on where!
Hi everyone. This has been the longest short month of the year - I think I say this every February, but it always comes as a surprise; this year, the state of the world has been extra rough. At least we’re getting more daylight, little by little…
We are mostly over our Covid/associated bugs. I’m hoping to feel well enough to have dinner with friends tomorrow, so please send healthy thoughts my way.
Sun: guys will have mashed potatoes and breaded fish and peas. If I don’t end up going out, they will still have that and I will make myself something else (since I don’t like any of those things!).
Mon: Sunday gravy, aka red sauce with a ton of meats. I’ll make this tomorrow so I can reheat after work (I have a 5-6pm meeting). Cheating with frozen meatballs but Wegmans makes really good gluten-free meatballs…
Tues: chipotle-honey chicken tacos (NYT) but maybe over rice rather than in taco form
Weds: harissa chicken with leeks and potatoes (Melissa Clark)
Actuals for Feb 17 week, cooking for 2 in MN. Where we’ve jumped from sub-zero with wind chills that caused schools to close for 3 days to 45 F today! Yesterday morning was our Buy Nothing FB group’s first in-person swap event. Such fun. I came home with a couple small bottles of olive oil and a lid-organizer rack that’s perfect for drying my washed ziplock bags. Plus some new/like-new items and books to gift grand-nieces in WI.
Mon: Turkey pot pie (Alfredo sauce & broccoli soup mixed, Italian seasoning, mixed veg/Normandy veg w added corn & peas, Crescent roll top)
Tues: One pot smothered French Onion pork chops, mashed potatoes, peas, sliced orange
Wed: Greek Turkey (sub Ground Chicken) Burgers with cucumber yogurt sauce. On homemade whole wheat buns. Garnished with Black olives, tomatoes, chopped spinach. Sweet potato tots.
Thurs: Sheet pan kielbasa sausage, pierogies, peppers and onions. Sliced apples – 3 varieties
Fri: Caesar steak salad (add tomatoes, cucumber, croutons). Cream biscuits. Dessert – cherry pecan cake with whipped cream
Sat: SW Chicken and sweet potato skillet
with cornbread muffins, garnish of guac, sour cream
Half recipe, using full amounts of beans and canned chiles, salsa in place of enchilada sauce.
Sun (today): Baked apple Dutch Baby pancake, Ham w/ glaze, peas
Mind you, it’s unusually cold today… I love reading your posts and I’m always inspired to hear about your gardening and cooking adventures.
I will have a salad for dinner.
