Hooray for Friday! It only took eleven years getting here. Here’s what we had this week:
SATURDAY
Deli sandwiches for 9 kids at home; a variety of foods for parents and Corrie on the road
On Saturday, we were at the excellent Bridgeport Catholic Women’s Conference, being well-fed spiritually and foodily. Note to other conference organizers: they offered a nice, long breakfast, and then snacks and drinks were available until lunch, and then snacks were available until dinner. That is how you have a women’s conference.
We weren’t able to stay to hear the third speaker, and Corrie was so buggy that I only heard part of the second speaker, Damon Owens. I went to chat with him afterwards, and said how disappointed I was not to hear the final third of his speech. He said, “Oh, it was like the first two thirds, except louder.” Heh. (Great speaker, by the way. Don’t miss an opportunity to hear him.)
On the way home, we stopped at a restaurant which always intrigued me, because it’s called “The Marina On the Water.” It’s a good name. And thorough! Do they also serve bread rolls, and will the waiter see you to a chair seat in the sitting area?
It turns out that the waitresses were friendly, the water view was spectacular, the food was mediocre, and it cost and arm and a leg and another arm. And Corrie spent most of the time on the foyer and bathroom floor, screaming “NOT NOT NOT, MAMA!” and pouring water into her lap. Here she is in happier times (right after and right before screaming):
I think my face conveys something of how much we enjoyed that meal. Anyway, we both ordered grilled swordfish sandwiches with pesto mayo and sweet peppers. I had coleslaw. The overwhelming sensation conveyed by every aspect of our food was: Do not forget that you are in Vermont.
Let’s just say our taste buds not only refused to tingle, they all yawned elaborately and muttered something about turning in early.
SUNDAY
Pan-seared salmon burgers with pesto mayo; sweet potato fries; cole slaw
Yep, I decided to redeem the previous day’s meal, and I succeeded. I bought a dozen of those individually-wrapped, frozen salmon steaks from Aldi (they are wild-caught) and pan-fried them according to this method from The Kitchn. They were swell. Ooh, that crisp seared skin.
I mixed tons of bottled pesto into some mayonnaise, and served it on toasted rolls with spinach.
My daughter made the coleslaw, nice and tart. Her recipe:
1 cup Mayo
1 cup White vinegar
Half cup Lemon juice
Half cup Sugar
1 head cabbage
A few carrots
4-5 Radishes
Mix wet ingredients. Add wet to shredded cabbage. Add sugar and stir. Grate carrots and radishes and stir in.
Very satisfying meal.
MONDAY
Hamburgers, chips, salad
I have no memory of Monday. On Mondays, my world is restricted to whatever I can see through a clean spot in the grimy windshield of the van.
TUESDAY
Sausage, pasta, and onions with meat sauce and parmesan
As usual, I made enough to feed a battalion of marines. As usual, they ate enough to make an almost-visible dent. I don’t even know why I made this dish.
WEDNESDAY
Grilled Cuban sandwiches
This has been on my list forever. I’ve never had a Cuban sandwich, so I guess we can call this a New England version. First I roasted a pork using this simple, tasty method from Cook The Story (which I will use again. It turned out moist and flavorful, and would have been great as a stand-alone dish.
I used thick sourdough bread, and assembled the sandwiches in this order:
Buttered sourdough bread
Mustard
Swiss cheese
Sliced ham
Roast pork
Pickled peppers
More Ham
More Swiss Cheese
Mustard
Buttered Sourdough bread
I grilled them on both sides, then pressed them hard with cans and grilled them again.
I like how the recipe suggests using a kitchen press, or a brick. I think they are trying to sound tough. “Yeahhh, just grab one’a dem bricks you got lyin’ around yer kitchen, ya know? Or brass knuckles, yeah, dat would do da trick, too.”
THURSDAY
Chicken nuggets, carrots and cukes, hardboiled eggs
I put this one the table and then went to go close my eyes for a minute for three hours. Then I got up, had a mug of wine, and went back to sleep for another eight hours. Don’t hate me. I’m so far behind on sleep, I’d have to spend 23 hours a day sleeping and live to be 125 years old before I got caught up.
FRIDAY
Quesadillas, tortilla chips and salsa, mangoes
That’s the plan, anyway.
Tell me about your lackluster restaurant meals, especially ones you redeemed at home!
Based on your pictures, I want to eat sandwiches for dinner from now on. So glad you attended a women’s conference with plenty of food- pamper us, please!
This week was a lot of leftovers and craziness, but I managed to make a really decent crock pot recipe: http://magazine.foxnews.com/recipe/rick-bayless-recipe-braised-short-rib-taco-green-chile-taste-nfl-fight-hunger
But, I didn’t brown anything first – I microwaved the onions and oil with some added tomato paste, covered, for about 8 minutes. Added that to the crock pot along with everything else, including the not-browned beef. Oh, and I substituted on the chiles for what I had handy. It’s a keeper!
I made a decent crock pot meal this week too, but it came together by accident. I thought I was buying organic chicken breasts for the outrageously low price of 2.89/lb. Got home and it turned out they were seriously expensive (but organic) thighs. I buttered up the crockpot. Coated the thighs with garlic and onion powder I mixed some honey into soy sauce and threw it all into one crock pot. Layered the chicken. About an hour before it was done, I nuked some frozen carrots and broccoli for a minute and then threw them, still ever so slightly frozen, in with the chicken. Boys ate it over rice. It was a big hit.
Many years ago we went to a nearby Cracker Barrel when it first opened, only to find out after we’d been seated that they didn’t serve beer. It’s been almost two decades but we still haven’t been back. Another great disappointment to me personally was when Chili’s (a frequent date night destination) changed their chicken taco – I don’t know why they had to mess with greatness. Fortunately, Chili’s chicken taco was one item for which I had already mastered the copycat recipe.
Most recently, a slighty disappointing sandwich from a place called Cheesie’s. They specialize in variations on grilled cheese. This one was mozzarella, (greasy) pepperoni, and sausage (that kept falling out), and was named “The Future”, for some reason. It’s one of my family’s favorite restaurants, though, and the food’s usually very tasty.
Too bad about the swordfish. I had swordfish once nearly four years ago (went out for our anniversary at a nice place) and it was about the best thing I ever ate. Makes your experience sound like more of a travesty: how could they ruin something so outstanding? (And, no, the difference isn’t proximity to a coastline.)
Sat: deer season, so corn dogs
Sun: still deer season, so chicken nuggets. I had salad to go with my meals-o-wimpitude this weekend, but the kids didn’t bother eating that.
Mon: husband back from shooting deer, so chili and cornbread
Tues: basil chicken, honey-garlic pasta, garlic knots, mandarin oranges (I almost never buy those, even though we love them; they’re all from China and I try to avoid that on principle. But I wish someone would convince me that it’s fine to buy them all the time, even though there is no longer a season when the fruit is sourced from Spain.)
Wed: leftovers including some venison stew that I had b/c I’d made a batch to take elsewhere and there was a bit that wouldn’t fit in that container.
Thu: taco casserole with chips, stewed strawberries with biscuits (had a container of frozen strawberries that needed to be used and that was all I could think of, plus it was the only fruit in the house)
Fri: tuna casserole, cinnamon muffins, broccoli/carrots (the latter grown by my parents and, wow, do those not taste like store-bought, a plus for me but not for some kids.)
We got invited to a friend’s house tonight, so tomorrow dinner will be what was planned for tonight. One pot chicken chow mein. Super easy and tasty. Just google it.
Maybe your new blog will like me better and allow me to post comments (I was never able on Patheos or Aleteia).
We don’t go out much and, when we do, we order stuff I don’t cook, so even if it’s not great, I won’t bother trying to improve on it.
But here are two super simple and quick dishes I discovered recently and cooked this week, both good for meatless Fridays if you do that.
Salmon pasta: use whatever type of pasta you like and while it cooks prepare the sauce:
Fry some onion, when it’s soft add a tin of salmon (I cut it in smaller bits in the tin), then add cream and then a few chopped capers OR a bit of dill (if fresh, a little goes a long way).
Because there’s only two adults at home I use a midsized tin, a small onion and about 2/3 to 3/4 cup of cream/creme fraiche if I find it.
My new favourite, even easier as you only need to cook the pasta (we used shells and loved finding bits of flavour lodged in them. For 4 cups /almost 1 lb dry pasta: chop a cup of semidried tomatoes in oil, cut a block of feta (approx 200 g or 7oz) in small cubes and very roughly chop a packed cup of baby spinach. When the pasta is ready, toss everything together and you’re done. I haven’t tried yet, but I’m sure you can replace spinach with rocket/arugula or basil and feta with some other crumbly cheese (goat’s maybe?).
An Argentine follower in Sydney 🙂
And here you are! Thanks for commenting. That salmon sauce sounds fantastic.
Saturday–Italian sausage and vegetable soup, garlic bread on the side. My extremely picky toddler suddenly decided she loves garlic bread–I know, I know, who wouldn’t? but she has refused it up until now–so I’m trying to have it more often so she stays interested in it and used to the taste of garlic and hope it’s a bridge to willingness to eat other yummy foods.
Sunday–beginning today, I made the 5 recipes from the little weekday meal planning booklet that comes in every issue of Rachael Ray magazine. First was a middle eastern rice, tomato, chicken, and onion dish, pretty tasty.
Monday–Soy honey marinated steak salad with lime vinaigrette
Tuesday–Penne pasta in a tomato/goat cheese sauce with roasted broccolini on the side
Wednesday–Chicken tortilla soup
Thursday–Steak sandwiches with a herbed goat cheese spread
Friday–I usually *try* to do meatless Fridays but I’m trying to clean out the freezer before we move next week so I’m using up the last crockpot meal I made before baby was born, beef fajitas.
Saturday–Italian sausage and vegetable soup, garlic bread on the side. My extremely picky toddler suddenly decided she loves garlic bread–I know, I know, who wouldn’t? but she has refused it up until now–so I’m trying to have it more often so she stays interested in it and used to the taste of garlic and hope it’s a bridge to willingness to eat other yummy foods.
Sunday–beginning today, I made the 5 recipes from the little weekday meal planning booklet that comes in every issue of Rachael Ray magazine. First was a middle eastern rice, tomato, chicken, and onion dish, pretty tasty.
Monday–Soy honey marinated steak salad with lime vinaigrette
Tuesday–Penne pasta in a tomato/goat cheese sauce with roasted broccolini on the side
Wednesday–Chicken tortilla soup
Thursday–Steak sandwiches with a herbed goat cheese spread
Friday–I usually *try* to do meatless Fridays but I’m trying to clean out the freezer before we move next week so I’m using up the last crockpot meal I made before baby was born, beef fajitas.
I think the most disappointed diner we ever had in our family was when four of us went to a very nice seafood restaurant (it’s by an aquarium, and we always go there after seeing the fish, because apparently we are hungry to eat fish after seeing the beautiful fish). My second born, who prides himself on being an adventurous eater, ordered something that was “Cajun.” Neither my husband nor my other children, who were with him, thought to warn him, because they had never had Cajun food in their life. My poor child is scarred for life and is now terrified of anything remotely spicy. This is the baby who ate salsa with a spoon before he was one.