MPM--Winding through Winter

I am not complaining, because we did get one little nuisance snow. This is the kind of winter I can deal with. Some cold, but not much freezing precipitation. I can live with cold and dry or cold and snowy, but the ice scares me. But wow, there's been plenty of wind--a huge branch fell on our porch in one windstorm, and we realized it came from one yard over. With the size of that branch--that was quite a windstorm. But, it beats an ice storm any day, so I'm hoping this mild pattern sticks around and we got all our snow out of the way at Halloween.

Monday: Pacific Rim pork (see sidebar), rice (my nod to Chinese New Year)

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday. I am riding this pony as far as I can.

Wednesday: salmon, broccoli, rice

Thursday: chicken and mushrooms in garlic wine sauce, salad

Friday: oh, I hope we go out. But if not, we'll try the Bittman semi-vegan chickpeas and spinach recipe. (The boys will have quinoa pesto.)


I made the chicken with leeks and sundried tomatoes last Monday. (My husband walked in and said, Are you seriously frying chicken on MLK Day? Hadn't thought of it that way, but I suppose I did.) It was terrific and my better-eater actually enjoyed the leeks on the side as well. (No surprise, he likes onions in any form, including chopped and raw, but still--heartening.) It was my first foray into the SkinnyTaste website and it was a hit. I will add salt & pepper to the flour next time but I like to follow the recipe as written the first time. I used Italian-style cutlets and it was great. I also liked using my cast-iron skillet for this and am getting better with it. It was a big enough hit that I will add the ur-recipe (according to the blog author), chicken in white wine and mushrooms, to the lineup this week. (I will not make it on Monday, though--too much time with the kiddo activities this day.)

Side note: please know, I do not call my children "Mr. Picky" or "Better Eater" in real life. It is blog nomenclature only. We do compliment the adventuresome eater and encourage both to try things, and Mr. Picky is getting better about taking tastes. It's a huge step and I'm very glad. But he would still prefer the all-beige diet, given his druthers.

We also made more pretzel hugs this week for a party at school. We just used regular M&Ms this time, and only one per hug, and they were adorable and very festive. I love that the boys love to do the unwrapping, which seriously makes me think about doing just about anything else in the world. And they are much better now about actual accuracy (you do have to get the hug on the pretzel, not just kind of on the pretzel) than speed, so they are almost to the point of doing it themselves, which is pretty thrilling.

And in a fun little twist, there is so much bacon obsession online (and elsewhere) these days, I gave a try to the baking-bacon-in-the-oven-on-a-wire-rack technique. It was good, though a little overdone (and I love crispy bacon); next time, I will put it in a not-warm-yet-but-heating oven at 350, 15 minutes, flip the bacon, and cook another 8 minutes. I'm always happy to experiment with bacon. Yum.

For other awesomely planned menus, check out I'm An Organizing Junkie! and have a great week!