Week 3 Cooking

I don't think I can express enough how much I liked the recipes out of How to Eat Supper for the past week. Everything was really really good. From the stew to the pasta (I wasn't sure about the cinnamon and pasta, but it was fantastic), it was fantastic. The eggs...oh my...even though I may have messed them up a little (cut the recipe in half, though I didn't do it for everything I think which lead to a bit runny stuffing for the eggs). So good. In that I made my first dressing from scratch, which wasn't hard at all. I'm pretty much making everything from the past week again, sometime. Also, last week I went through almost two bulbs of garlic...

This past week, I added a 12" lid and spatter shield to my collection. Which is a necessity...though with both of them, it makes it tough, since the 12" items don't fit well into my dishwasher... I used my Chantal Copper Fusion Stock pot for the soup...oh yes I love that pot...other then that I have to wash it by hand...(doesn't fit in dishwasher).

This week I'll be cooking out of both How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food (Original 1998 edition) and a recipe card that I got when I bought some Niman Ranch Chorizo. in no particular order:

• Black Beans with Niman Ranch Chorizo & Rice (card)
• Chicken Soup with Rice (p. 73)
• Spaghetti alla Carbonara (p. 141)
• Bean and Tomato Casserole (p 512)
• Spicy Tofu with Ground Pork (p 526)

Results of the first and Next weeks menu

So over the last week of cooking, I've reminded myself why I need to get my mise en place, found out that I needed a lid for my 12 inch skillet. It is kind of hard to cover and simmer when you do not have a lid that comes close to the size of the pan (boo). I plan to rectify that this week. Though I had, at the beginning of the week, close to 3 pounds of rice, two of those pounds not instant rice (Arborio and Basmati made up the majority of it). And when you aren't cooking for an hour, then the use of instant rice is a must (I ran out). Everything turned out pretty well. I was hoping for a more Worcestershire sauce taste to the Shepherd's Pie. I also need to at least prep before Shannon gets home. Sometimes it would take longer then I would expect, and we're eating dinner at 8. The worst was with the Curried Chicken and Rice, which was, my fault, because I ran out of instant rice, so in adding basmati, I had to cook it a whole lot longer then what the recipe called for. Which also led to overcooked chicken (still good tasting, but a little tougher then my normal chicken.

So...frustrating.

We also had too many leftovers. Most of the recipes are for 4 people. So lots of leftovers left. Now for me, this provides quite the variety in my lunches. But even so, we had a leftover night and still have left overs. Now that I think about it, it may be more to the point that the lasagna is servings for 8, instead of 4...so that kind of moved everything back...

This week I'll be doing 4 dinners. (the rest being leftovers or quick meals (easily made standards)). I'll be cooking from How to Eat Supper in no particular order:

• Cuban Black Bean Stew (p 79)
• Pan Crisped Deviled Eggs on French Lettuces (p 93)
• Hollow Pasta with Greek Cinnamon-Tomato Sauce (p 166) (for movie night if we're hosting)
• Tomato Cheddar Packed Turkey Burgers (p 210)

New Years Resolutions 2009 and First Week of meals

This year we have a shared goal of not using the credit card for anything other then replacing the furnace and air conditioner (this will depend on if I use the tax refund(s) for this or to pay off my car, which will be paid off by September).

My goal for this year, is to use my cookbooks more and plan and make dinners according to the plan. Too often I'll depend on the old standbys because I feel tired or just can't think of what I want to make.

So for the week of Sunday January 4th through Saturday January 10th, I'll be cooking from The Best 30-Minute Recipe mostly.

Tonight it'll be Lasagna (not from the book, or any book for that matter) and then in no particular order:

• Skillet Tamale Pie (pages 119-120)
• Skillet Shepherd's Pie (pages 118-119)
• Curried Chicken and Rice (page 110)
• 30 Minute Pork Vindaloo (Page 83)