Week of Menus

Well... I certainly failed on the whole NaBloPoMo thing, but I suspect that I always will end up forgetting at some point. In my defense, it has been a terribly busy month, which included joining a softball team, crazy tests, and a new car. Yes. We bought a car. In fact, we bought a new car... about as new as you can get. We got a 2010 Ford Fusion on Friday night and I couldn't be more excited. The car is awesome and I no longer fear for my life whenever we brake because *gasp* I can predict with great certainty that the brakes won't fail.

I saw this "week of menus" thing on Dine and Dish tonight and it seemed like a good idea to try this week. With a new car, money is a lot tighter than it has been in awhile so we're trying to eat in more. (Okay, let's be real... *I'm* trying to eat in more. Colby could eat dry cereal, rice, and chocolate every day so it's more my issue).

I'm going to try a M-F menu for this week's dinners:

Monday: Roasted corn and Kielbasas
I have a softball game, so timing will be a little tight... meaning that it's "cop out" dinner night
Tuesday: Chicken Parmesan
I have panko that I've been waiting to use for months.
Wednesday: Salmon hash with scrambled eggs and irish oatmeal
I'm going to try to use up leftovers and have breakfast for dinner :)
Thursday: hatch green chile goat cheese burgers with blackbean+cheese nachos
Again, going through my pantry for this one
Friday: Pizza! with any toppings I can find in my fridge (I see artichokes and sundried tomatoes)
Another pantry dinner and this time, it might be fun and may involve having people over.

Savoring the Tart

Okay. Whatever. I'm never going to be able to remember to post every day for a month. I guess I can live with that. This week has been rough. I had a test in the most time intensive class evAr and I also dealt with the brakes on my car not working, which only cost me 500 bucks. Better yet, sometimes my car doesn't feel like starting when it's hot, which means that living in Texas in the summer is kind of a downer. I guess we'll take it in tomorrow to get it fixed. In all, I've been trying to keep it together and it's not going very well. My coping mechanism would normally be cooking, but my kitchen is a mess (still), so let's post an easter recipe instead.

Potato, Asparagus and Goat Cheese Tart

2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed
1/2 lb small potatoes (I used purple potatoes)
1 bunch of asparagus, ends trimmed and cut in half
6 oz goat cheese (chevre)
1 c grated mozzarella
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 green onions, thinly sliced on the bias

Boil potatoes in heavily salted water until tender. Cut into slices (you can use an egg slicer for even pieces). Heat oven to 375. Roll out puff pastry and score a 1 in border around the sides. Dock the center very thoroughly. Bake in the oven until the border has puffed up and it's golden-y (about 10 minutes-ish). While baking, blanch asparagus until fork tender, but not mushy. Distribute potato slices, goat cheese, garlic, onions, and asparagus and then cover in mozzarella. Bake for an addition 10-15 minutes, until the cheese is melty and the crust is golden brown.

Happy Easter!

The dinner party was a success. :) Everyone liked the food and now I have a pile of delicious leftovers. Recipes later, but I never took pictures because I was too busy. Ah well. Such is life.

Vanilla Bean Gelato

This is a quickie because I'm in the middle of making my dessert for tomorrow.

3+1 c whole milk
1 vanilla bean, split + seeds
1 c granulated sugar
3tbs+2tsp corn starch

bring 3c milk and the vanilla bean and seeds to a simmer. Combine 1c milk, sugar, and cornstarch and add that mixture to the simmering vanilla milk while continuously stirring. Keep stirring until mixture thickens, pour through a fine mesh strainer, and put in the fridge to chill. Set up your ice cream maker and turn it on, and then pour in the mix. I waited overnight to do this... but mostly because it took that long to get the bowl of my ice cream maker to freeze. It'll be a little soft, but let it sit in the freezer for a bit and then it'll be perfect. :)

Also, I must admit that I took this from 101cookbooks, but this is mostly for my own records.

Easter Menu

I decided to have people over for dinner on Easter... a simple enough task, but now I'm wondering if I'm in over my head. Oh well. Too late now, but at least I have my menu planned... which is:

Appetizers:
Mini caprese salad with roasted heirloom tomatoes
potato and asparagus tart with goat cheese

Salad:
charcuterie and cheese plate salad

Main Course:
Roasted chicken

Sides:
sweet and spicy roasted brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes
mushroom ragu over orzo

Dessert:
strawberry and blood orange shortcake with vanilla bean gelato and homemade whipped cream

I guess I should explain the charcuterie and cheese plate salad, which was not my idea, but rather Bon Apetit's. I'm pretty sure that it'll make me look lazy, but once they start eating, I'll look like a lazy genius. I got Speck dell'Alto Adige from Central Market today because prosciutto was prohibitively expensive. I also picked up some abruzzese and a handful of cheeses including Gruyère, asiago, chevre, and Amish blue cheese. The plan is to make a vineagrette and dress some salad and then put out the meats and cheeses as add-ins pho style. There will also be toasted walnuts, cranberries, and these cute little olives I picked up today as well.

Recipes for the other items will come in due time, when I'm not trying to study for galaxies. Ugh.

roasted veggies

So... I slept through last night's post. Oops. In preparation for Easter, I've been cooking most of the dishes that I'm going to be making for dinner. Tonight, I made the veggie dish and the cornbread that will be used for the strawberry-orange short cake. :)


Roasted brussels sprouts:
1 lb baby BS, halved
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
salt
pepper

combined everything. put onto a large sheet pan face down and then into a 400 degree oven for 20-ish minutes

Roasted sweet potatoes
1 sweet potato, cubed
1 tsp smoked sweet paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tbs oil
1 clove garlic, minced

combine and toss into a 400 degree oven for 20ish minutes as well

Colby and I ate them together and it was surprisingly good. I think that I probably should have turned the sweet potatoes midway, but other than that, I'm getting excited for Easter. :) The only thing left to do is to figure out how to handle the roasted chicken.

If this blog were about beryllium, I'd have a post.

I found the perfect medium for that walnut and condensed milk sweet: Greek yogurt. The tangy-ness cuts through the sweetness and compliments the saltiness of the fleur de sel. Also, I have to give half of stellar seminar tomorrow, so I'll put up a real post tomorrow.