MPM--Yum

We had a very successful week here foodwise last week. In my personal life, can February please be better? Menu below, and lots of happy dinner results from last week beyond that.

Monday: Pork Ragu over noodles, salad (will probably do pears and walnuts with shallot dressing from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything...feeling fancy)

Tuesday: Sloppy Joes from a recipe in the coupon circular. I am on a real "use what's in the fridge and pantry" tear and this is helping a lot.

Wednesday: Turkey Shepherd's Pie

Thursday: Plum Chicken, rice, broccoli

Friday: Leftovers. Or maybe out. We'll see how I'm doing by then.


I've been really lucky lately with the new recipes. The sausage bake was insanely quick, easy, and delicious on the coldest night in two years. It honestly took ten minutes to prep, if that, and the times were loose and the ingredients easy. My husband loved it. My kids wouldn't touch it, which surprised me, because hello, pig. But we enjoyed it enough to finish almost all of it.

Tuesday's recipe was awesome as well--Smitten Kitchen's mushroom bourguignon. Fortunately, though, I started making it on Monday. Creminis were on sale around here and I thought they would be great, but oh, the slicing--much easier on portobellos. In my mind, I thought I could leave the creminis whole. But--no. If I make it again, it'll be portobellos all the way. Once all the slicing was done, it wasn't hard, though the kids would need to be watching TV or something while doing it--there's some scooping and switching and adding and things that are hard to do while also coaching spelling words, say. But it really fit something I've been looking for--a meaty winter meal that doesn't really involve meat. There are nights that meat just grosses me out. And now that I'm buying only the guilt-free (free range, humanely slaughtered, oxymoronic though that may be, etc. etc.) meat, it's pricey. (Not that creminis aren't.) So this was a great find...and while I honestly think it would be a little better with meat, it was yummy anyway.

It was "bring an appetizer recipe" night at my moms' group so I brought an old favorite (hot pizza dip) and took the opportunity to try a new one--Minty Peas. The minty peas were ok but somehow not right for a winter's night. I will try again in summer. The pizza dip, of course, was almost all gone by the end of the night.

Then it snowed again--another top-ten-ever--yawn--this is getting dull as four of the top ten ever in our city have been in the past five years. But we had my usual "it is snowing--I must cook meat" thing here and a great recipe--Belgian Beef Stew from Dinner: A Love Story. It was delicious, easy, and fast. This will go in the winter rotation for sure.

I did not get to the pesto minestrone. I had made the Armagnac chicken again for another family and my son begged me to make it for us. Such requests are rare, so I hopped on it. Still delicious, though now that I am out of the Trader Vic's Flaming Brandy (circa 1963), I am not sure how it will taste next time!

Have a good week, wherever you are. And check out I'm an Organizing Junkie for more yummy ideas!