Hi, all! Cooking for 2 in Chattanooga. Last week before a long-awaited extended family vacation in Vancouver (14 of us)!
Breakfast: Plum and poppyseed muffins from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, except with cherries and almonds, haha
Saturday, May 13: Thai chicken curry with homemade curry paste from a Cook’s Illustrated publication; rice; some kind of green veggie
Sunday: Stuffed pork tenderloin, potato salad, green bean salad, strawberry ricotta cakes
Monday: Chicken cutlets with cabbage salad; maybe leftover potato salad or rice?
Tuesday: One more trivia night
Wednesday: Shrimp masala from an old Charmaine Solomon Indian cookbook; rice
Thursday/Friday: Clean out the fridge for the house sitter!
Happy Mother’s Day to those who celebrate: I hope you get just the meal you want. Have a great week, and happy cooking!
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
82
I’m so familiar with your story. Getting to speak to a doctor is a significant challenge here as well. It’s all very well the health service being free at the point of delivery. But when they don’t deliver…
Hi, everyone. Cooking for two adults and a tween in the Boston burbs. Spring has sprung, the trees are dumping tons of pollen, and I can’t stop sneezing/tearing up despite the “one of each class” of antihistamine-like drugs running through my body. I hope my immune system is enjoying its annual tantrum! Speaking of tantrums, our town narrowly avoided a (rumored) teacher’s strike that would have potentially (per the rumor mill) lasted 2 weeks and extended the school year to June 30th. I’m glad everyone finally compromised.
We went out for brunch today and I enjoyed pancakes (GF) - but the bread for the guys’ sandwiches was not much different than what I’ve made at home. The experimenting continues…
Sun: roasted pork loin (slathered with garlic, rosemary, and Dijon - I wish I could remember where I’ve found this recipe before) and baked sweet potatoes
Mon: stir-fried ground chicken (not pork) with green beans and cherry tomatoes (Dinner in One), jasmine rice
Tues: red lentil cakes with tomato salsa - an old Cooking Light recipe that I haven’t made for a while, not sure how well it will go over
Weds: Mexican chicken casserole (sort of like enchiladas, but with sour cream and cream cheese mixed into the chicken), also an old Cooking Light recipe; side of black beans
Thurs: spaghetti pie, another old Cooking Light recipe… and salad
Fri: tbd but DS and buddies may be using our house as a waystation between soccer practice and going to see the school play, so I might be called upon to order pizza for them
I remember getting a recipe for a Mexican casserole type thing, maybe stacked enchiladas, or similar, from you a few years back on CH, and loving it. Is this the same thing?
Hm, maybe? This was in Cooking Light from December 1998, a column they did of “let us help you lighten up your horribly unhealthy family favorites.” Mostly that involved cutting the cheese amounts in half and using nonstick spray instead of butter or oil.
Two in western mass with beautiful sunny cool days
Actuals from last week
Thursday I fried fish for me and forgot what DH had
Friday cheeseburger night salad
Saturday a casserole loosley based on Sour cream noodles casserole from Pioneer Woman salad
Sunday boneless chicken breasts marinated in BBQ sauce and pan sauted witu broth and wine finish. Mashed Potato and brocolli
Tonight leftover casserole DH, asparagus and fettucini with a creamy sauce for me.
Tuesday crustless sausage and spinach quiche with caesar salad
Wednesday marinated boneless pork ribs, homemade coleslaw and Brazilian potato salad made at pricey butcher deli
Thursday tbd pastai with a tomato sauce with italian sausage, mushrooms and peppers
Actuals for May 8 week, cooking for two in MN. Where I’ve purchased all the plants for my containers, and now am looking forward to 2 days of potting and then 4 days of heavy (for us old folks… may need to find a teen or two) labor to plant 2 new shrubs where 3 old lilacs were cut down a couple of years ago. I got to visit my niece and grandnieces in WI Fri-Sun. Her husband/their dad was working 11 AM - 7 PM each day with an hour commute each way, and still got up at 6 AM Sunday to make her a Mothers Day breakfast in bed (waffles, fresh fruit) with the grandnieces’ giggling help and then joining her with their own plates. The girls are creative “imaginary” cooks, too - a missing ostrich wooden-puzzle piece from a zoo-themed puzzle was eventually found “decorating” a plastic cookie in their play kitchen.
Mon - Steak, spinach souffle, sweet potato
Tues - (after plant-shopping) Cod nuggets, corn dip w tortilla chips
Wed - OUT – Panera - wild rice soup, almond chicken salad sandwich
Thurs - (after more plant shopping) Ham, bag salad, Schwan’s Sweet Potato side, red grapes
Fri - niece cooked In WI Hot shredded chicken w BBQ sauce sandwich
Sat - niece cooked In WI – Beef French Dip sandwich, fries, ice cream bars
Sun - BAKED Krumkake cookies for niece & family before lunch. Dinner - back in MN - (reheated from Wednesday lunchtime) Egg Bake, salad, bakery lemon cream cake
After an exhausting weekend trip, we’ll let Trader Joe’s do the heavy lifting this week.
For two adults in San Diego/Sacramento:
This week’s breakfasts: Defrosting double chocolate chip muffins from the freezer to last till the weekend.
F/S/Su: In Sacramento. Had assorted, safely bland takeout to spark some appetite for my ailing mother. Did manage to share a sandwich from Corti Brothers with my husband for one lunch. A member of the family ordered Ina’s Coconut Cake for my mother via Goldbelly, and it was very tasty.
M: (tonight) Chili (from freezer)
T: Pasta with TJ’s turkey meatballs, red sauce, and cheese
W: Potato soup made with leftover green chile au gratin potatoes from freezer - vegetarian
Haven’t posted in ages as I got out of the routine. Just set an alarm on my phone so I remember to check back in at least once a week. Have been struggling to find menu inspiration lately!
Cooking for two adults and a picky 10 yo in SW Ontario. Plans for this week:
Sunday - My partner cooked my requested Mother’s Day meal, which was black cod and snap peas with sweet miso-butter (Cravings)
Monday - Caro Chambers’ balsamic basil grilled chicken thighs with strawberry goat cheese salad (whattocook.substack.com - requires subscription)
Tuesday - Caro Chambers’ sesame-ginger grilled steak with a pepper, cucumber and avocado salad (I also added corn to the salad)
Wednesday - My daughter has an extracurricular at 6:30 on Wednesdays, so Wednesday meals need to be quick and easy. Tonight’s is chicken fajitas. Lately, I like the Simply Recipes recipe
Thursday - Hot honey salmon bowl from Half Baked Harvest. I honestly find a lot of her recipes terrible (both in outcome and poor recipe-writing), but this one looked like one I wanted to try.
Friday - Takeout
Saturday/Sunday - Our first cottage weekend of the summer. My mother will cook : )
I’ve also gotten out of the posting habit, mostly because Lulu’s schedule has gotten crazy (and being 17, she often doesn’t tell me about changes until the last minute). I’m resolving to try to do better on this.
Oh, poor recipe writing makes me nuts. I used to make a Rachael Ray recipe for ravioli vegetable lasagna, which involves three basic components: cooked cheese ravioli, a bechamel, and a sautéed spinach/asparagus/artichoke hearts mixture. The way the recipe was written was so confusing, I had to read through it multiple times, and finally just re-wrote it in my notes.
That’s what you gotta do! Understanding how food science works and how things come together are such important skills to have when parsing a recipe. I often see recipes that were obviously translated by an aide, not the creator.
My pet peeve is combining steps that don’t go together, just to save on the number of steps the recipe appears to have. (Oh, and ingredient lists that forget to say “divided use.”)
This is part of the reason I’m such a Caro Chambers devotee. She writes her recipes in such a great format that makes them so easy to follow, especially if you’re trying to multitask parenting and dinner prep.
