The Sweet Smells of September

First, thanks for the suggestions on the stink. My title is a bit of a joke as our house is getting better but still has distinct Eau de Dog. We keep thinking we have it on the run, and it returns. The dog goes to the vet tomorrow so we'll see if they have any great ideas. I am afraid it is just Old Dog Stank and the new normal around here. But I am psyched to try the charcoal to see if that helps. This week...

Monday--I'm out, but home for most of the day. I am planning to make the pineapple pork chops that I never got to a few weeks ago. I'll serve with rice and applesauce and peas. (My oldest, and pea-adorer, is sick today with a sore throat and if he's not eating them, making his favorite seems mean.)

Tuesday--tacos

Wednesday--spaghetti

Thursday--trying this one-pot chicken dish in hopes of using all the awesome CSA tomatoes coming our way.

Friday--unclear. I have the crock pot mongolian beef in the freezer so I might try that. If we aren't "porked out" from Monday, there is a slow cooker pork tenderloin floating around Facebook that I might try. If it goes well I will post the recipe. On a different note: it is very strange not going to football games every Friday, but it's kind of pleasant, too. We have no local cousins left in high school, and our advisee graduated, and we aren't getting another until next year, so it's kind of a year off.

A few other random notes: lots of salty language here but this post railing against back to school pinteresting made me laugh out loud.

We are overloaded with CSA potatoes. I thought ordering our own instead of taking what we got would work better, but so far--it is not working out quite as well as I hoped. Partially it's the selection. There was exactly one week of cucumbers. There was also only one week of zucchini! There was no corn. And I could continue but I think our CSA time might be over for a while. The tomatoes are good but we are overrun with them, and I like Jerseys better anyway (yes, totally mental but there it is). But anyway: the potatoes. The good thing is, they have them every week, they are delicious, and now I have more than enough to make the make-ahead mashed potatoes for the holiday season. (I can't believe I haven't posted my sister-in-law's freezer mashed potatoes recipe! I will have to get on that for next week.)

Also, I happen to think that Ghiardelli brownies are a pinnacle of the art form, but suddenly it seems like there are brownie links everywhere. So when the weather turns colder, I'm having a brownie-off, with Tipsy Baker's old favorite, new favorite, and the somewhat wincingly-named (but probably accurate) man-catcher brownies from the Washington Post. (The intention here is to add chocolate chips and bake for 55 minutes.) If I'm missing your favorite brownie, please let me know.

Wishing you a good week!