Sunday, September 28, 2008

Suppertime

It's fall! Time for some more stews and warm toasty things.

This week I made pizza puttanesca using some very basic ingredients and a thin crust Boboli pizza shell. I loved this dinner, but Chris ate 3/4 of it! He loved it too, needless to say. You sautee some garlic and red pepper flakes in olive oil, add in two anchovies, and then some diced tomatoes (drain them first). Spread this mix on the pizza crust, top with some cheese (not too much) and kalamata olives (you can add capers too, but I decided no). It was lovely, and fancy to boot.

Several people have inquired about the curry I made in the previous post. I think it tasted bland, but maybe I should have added more curry powder. Chris liked it a lot, especially the incorporation of spinach into our diet. Spinach is a power food, did you know that? You're supposed to eat it every day.

This week we're going to:

Broil some white fish! What white fish will it be? Whatever looks good at Whole Foods. Will I put fresh salsa on it? Or will I eat it with Mustard and Herbs? Only time will tell.

Beefaroni-In memory of Paul Newman I will gladly use his Sockaroni sauce to complement this easy, cheesy dish. The Sockaroni is good because it has peppers and a full bodied flavor, which is essential in what is ultimately a 4 ingredient dish (beef, pasta, sauce, cheese).

That's all I can think of for now. Maybe some good ideas will come my way? Hint, hint.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Dinner plans?

Garlic and Cauliflower pasta-Mark Bittman recipe that starts off with a base of anchovies, olive oil and garlic. You can't go wrong. I'm going to get a roast chicken (Safeway has the best I find) and shred it to add some more oomph to this recipe. I'm not sure what kind of pasta to use. Lidia says to use long pasta like spaghetti, but Gideon prefers a short pasta. I think we'll go with penne.

The rest of the shredded rotisserie chicken will go to this recipe for Chicken Curry. I have tried several chicken curry recipes but I have yet to find one that I really love. We'll see if this one hits the spot for my Indian food jonesin. I like the idea of using coconut milk for the creaminess, and I happen to have one can in my pantry.

When my pantry, which is literally the size of a large dictionary, is only full of things I plan to use that week, I will float away in bliss. My whole house is in need of this type of clutter cleansing. The battles against clutter seem to be lost repeatedly this year. We will regroup! We will continue! Maybe we have to have some sort of surge?

One day we're just doing grilled cheese and chicken noodle soup. Gideon loves the grilled cheese and Chris loves the chicken noodle soup (from a can). I've decided to give my chef and my cleaning crew a break.

A recipe I've tried numerous times and just love to death is for Zucchini Frittata. I should really just whip out the food processor for the zucchini but I hate the idea of cleaning it. Which is sad because I've never used it. I didn't make the mounds of baby food for Gideon that I had envisioned. I used my mini prep, which was hella annoying, and why I invested in this larger version, but by that time Gideon was eating a lot of jar food. And then table food. And it seemed pointless to read the instruction booklet. My mom gave me some sausage patties she got from Costco. They are pretty good. They came in a huge bag of 30 sausage patties. For $10. Now you know that's a value.