MPM--Summer Winds

Those summer winds...came blowin' in...from across the sea...

Alas, I am not at the beach, but at the almost-end of camp. Which makes me very sad indeed.

Monday: CSA Day, so many vegetables aaand...something. The little one is desperate for pasta, which he has not had in a while, because he was sick, and when he is sick he wants butter and cheese on his noodles, but he is my tummy-problem guy, so that's out. TMI, I'm sorry, but I'm menu planning here. So: veggies and pasta for all. I will probably make the Splendid Table's alfredo to go with it and tie it together like an actual meal. But I also have some buttermilk left and might do buttermilk soaked chicken and bake or panfry. The weather broke also (hooray!) so it's roasting day.

Tuesday: I have a meeting, so it's a Trader Joe's night. For Dad and Little Guy: mac and cheese (and Dad will have leftover filet and veggies with it). For Mom and Big Brother: mushroom flatbread and salads.

Wednesday: I have some of the crockpot Italian beef in the freezer, so beef sandwiches plus veggies from the CSA box

Thursday: I didn't get to the shrimp-tomato-corn salad last week so hopefully tonight. I love that and it's peak season!

Friday: pizza and soccer. Can't beat it!

Last week, I got some of my cooking mojo back. It all started with the tomatoes.

When I saw the recipe on Smitten Kitchen for the Scalloped Tomatoes with Croutons, I needed to make it almost immediately. And I was SO glad I did. You must make this next time you have good bread and tomatoes on hand. A few notes: 1) I left crusts on, and worked fine 2) It was still mushy, but who cares? still, will probably do more bread next time 3) forgot basil, so it wasn't sublime but merely amazing and 4) halved the kosher salt and still very, very salty (but I think it was my parm, which was the Trader Joe's preshredded because it's what I had and I needed to make this immediately).

Lest you think my other blog crush, Dinner: A Love Story was left out, fear not: I made her salad dressing almost instantly. I was insanely disappointed at first, but after a day, it came together in an all new way that I loved.

I also inherited a ton of otherwise unwanted fennel from my CSA and did the caramelized fennel and onions recipe again. Uh--yum. I don't want to inform everyone what they're missing but it is delish.

We also thought the hottest day of the year would be a fun day to grill. We tried the Pioneer Woman's steak rub. To be honest, I got suckered in by the moment of silence for the foodies. I thought maybe I have erred in my lemon pepper avoiding ways. But I had a bottle of it from...something, and always the Lawry's for my mac and cheese, so we gave it a try. I think we erred in grilling. It must need the oil and butter to make this palatable. While my husband thought it was fine, I thought it was too much--well, lemon-pepper-y, and it wasn't what I was hoping for. But PW does not, in general, let me down, so I'm going to try it once more (still have plenty in the lemon-pepper bottle) but will actually pan-fry and see if that changes anything. Will let you know.

While my husband was out there, I long-sliced and oiled and salted and peppered a zucchini for him to pop on the grill, and I made the Dinner: A Love Story double mustard potatoes. Those were excellent. I loved them and will make them again. And again. And it really wasn't hard--a moderate amount of chopping the potatoes, and then the long part was waiting for the water to boil. I love those. And next time, I might try with parsley instead of basil, because my basil got lost in the mustard. Still--a keeper.

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