Food....

I cook often.

And I always mean to take pictures of the food I'm cooking.

But I almost always forget.

So, I can at least review the menu from the past week, and preview the menu from this coming week.

This is helpful to me so I can remember what we liked/what I enjoyed or despised cooking.


Sunday Supper, last week: Roast with twice baked taters. After trying a few different ones, Paul and I have decided that we like my mother's old roast recipe the best. It has red bell peppers, carrots, and a good amount of spice in it. I love twice-baked potatoes, and since I learned how one should really bake a potato (no foil, lots of kosher salt and olive oil rubbed on before it goes directly on the oven rack), they have just gotten better. I try to vary what I do with potatoes, and twice-baked are good if you are not rushed, but I'd have them three times a week if I thought we wouldn't start to dread them like I used to dread oatmeal after my Wilderness Venture when I was 15....


Monday Supper: I cooked at Mama's house (we try to eat with her once a week or so) - Italian Shrimp and Pasta with Cream Sauce. It was actually more like angel hair alfredo. (Mama doesn't like fettucine....don't ask me...). The Italian Shrimp is good - a recipe i've modified out of Square Table, one of my favorite recipe books, but i've found it really hard to get the shrimp done just the right amount. You cannot beat alfredo sauce, and I've got it down to a pretty good science.

Tuesday Supper: Paul has been after me to add some asian-type dishes into my repertoire. I have been a bad wife and been resisting for about a year now, but I've finally given in. So, I read reviews, researched recipes, etc., and decided to try this recipe. It wasn't hard, once I had my mise en place. But that was an endeavor in itself. I had to cut chicken into 1/8 thick slices (so when you stir fry it, it will cook quickly), and many of the ingredients are expensive. But, now we have them, so now, I guess, we can keep adding asian dishes. I served it with fried rice, which was good, but unhealthy, so I don't know how much of that we'll do. But, the kids gobbled up the fried rice, some broccoli, and some non-spicy chicken i made for them.

(i'm philosophically opposed to giving them something other than what we have, but on occasion, i'm aware it would be unkind to force upon them what we're having. the only thing they really object to is something very, very spicy. Which is what this was. very, very spicy)

Wednesday Supper: Generally, each Wednesday, I take off from cooking, because we have pizza or subway with our church family. It is nice to have a day every week that I know I don't have to fix supper.

Thursday Supper: Paul was out of town and Mama took the kids and me to have mexican food out and then back to her house for me to help her chop things to prepare for a dinner party she was having on Friday. So, i prepared a reduction for lemon butter, and chopped onion, garlic and peppers for crab cakes, but ate a bean burrito.... it was culinary confusion!

Friday Supper: Some good friends of ours had us for supper - and wouldn't let me bring a thing. It was so nice to have no dishes to wash and no garlic smell emanating from my pores, but, by Saturday morning I was really missing cooking.

Saturday Supper: We had Bring Your Own Grill Item night. I made garlic mashed potatoes and a capresi inspired salad (fresh mozzarella, vine ripened tomatoes, fresh basil, tossed with mixed greens. A traditional capresi salad is just the first three drizzled with olive oil, and while it makes a great appetizer, it doesn't make a great actual salad). I also roasted some garlic for rolls. Roasted Garlic Makes Everything Better.

Sunday Lunch: We had several friends for lunch - they contributed a salad and dessert. I made Chicken Romano, which is an old recipe of my mothers that we love around here. It's chicken in red sauce over angel hair. I guess it's similar to chicken parmesan, but I don't like a big hunkin chicken breast over my noodles, so i cut it up into strips/nuggets, and then make a sauce from scratch, which is so yummy.

Sunday Supper: We had a super yummy supper last night, if i do say so myself. Paneed Redfish (which is also an adapted recipe out of square table) - with an artichoke crabmeat cream sauce, asparagus, and cheddar risotto. Love risotto. The redfish recipe reminds me of Redfish Anna, a redfish dish at one of our very favorite restaurants in Jackson, Walkers Drive In. My sweet friend brought dessert - this amazing caramel banana pie that involves boiling whole cans of sweetened condensed milk.

Tonight: We are having super easy supper. Cheese ravioli with tomato sauce on top of it. Big green salad. May roast a few heads of garlic. because why? Roasted Garlic Makes Everything Better.

Tuesday Lunch: Swenson's cheese soup, big green salad, paninis. (I'm taking lunch to some old work buddies, so actually making lunch, rather than just scavenging, which is what we normally do 'round here)

Tuesday Supper: At Mama's - I'm probably cooking Spinach Lasagna - her request. It's very labor intensive, so I am almost of a mind to tell her to cook it herself. But, although labor intensive, it is one of our favorites, so I'm up for it. It makes the BEST leftovers.

Wednesday: Again, my night off.

Thursday Supper: Roast Chickens. It's my new favorite hobby. I'll also probably roast some new potatoes, and we'll definitely have lots of green things on our plate, and maybe some carrots. Someone call me Thursday morning and remind me to photograph the chicken roasting process so I can pass on the fun.

Friday Supper: The Children are going to be in Hattiesburg with Paul's parents, so we're probably going to have taco bell. It is our favorite weakness. And I'm hosting a baby shower at my house on Saturday morning, so I really don't want to dirty up a bunch of dishes here.

Saturday Supper: Haven't gotten that far yet. Kidless again, so who knows what might happen.

Sunday Supper: Chicken in Puff Pastry. One of our favorites and I haven't done it in months and months, maybe a year, so I decided it was time to do it again.

whew... Tired now. And hungry.

Roasted Garlic for midmorning snack?