I somehow managed to get way behind on this but I’ve still been planning and shopping and cooking. Last week was pretty run of the mill. The only new recipe that I tried was for loaded sweet potatoes. YUM! So good. 
My only complaint is that I halved the recipe for my family and that meant buying a liter sized carton of buttermilk just to use two tablespoons in this recipe. Something I vowed not to do. I was successful in my effort to use it up before it went bad (pancakes and biscuits) but I don’t think the recipe would have suffered much without it. I don’t want to mislead you. It’s not as if they were a revelation… something remarkable that I’ve never tasted before. They tasted pretty TGI Friday’s but how brilliant to use a sweet potato? I never would have thought of that. There’s no butter and the buttermilk probably keeps the fat content down but I probably could have just as easily skipped the buttermilk and blended in a little extra sour cream instead. What coud be bad about sour cream and bacon? Honestly. Too bad Chase isn’t into them.
This week I’m working my way through The Splendid Table’s How To Eat Supper and totally loving it. I only catch the show if the stars align but I do subscribe to their email newsletter and really enjoy it. People are always telling me about reading cookbooks cover to cover and I’ve never understood until now. I think it’s simply that this is THE book for me. It’s the right book for the way I cook. Here’s an excerpt from the introduction to the chapter on main dishes:
Some nights supper is a bowl of popcorn, a glass of wine, and the TV. Some nights you debate whether to cook or not to cook for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is guilt, be it about health, money, or feeding the kids yet another frozen pizza.
All the dishes in this chapter had to… be made of basic cuts- chops, fillets, tenderloins, breasts, etc.- that are readily available at the market… [and] the recipes had to take a reinvigorated look at beloved traditions or offer unexpected variations on basic themes.
We think of these recipes as centerpiece meals, perfect for real weeknight eating but also expansive enough for the special guest or a party.
They totally get me. I think I like it better than Everyday Food. Without further ado:
Monday: I made lemon-garlic roast salmon on new potatoes. It turns out that everyone at our house likes salmon so I’ve decided to go with it. I was thinking I might treat us to steak this week. Then when I got to the fish counter I thought that the salmon was a better deal. I was wrong. But whatever, it was good. It’s the kind of meal that I probably won’t need to reference the recipe for again but would never have come up with on my own. I might try the variation for chutney roast fish next time.
Tuesday: 21st century mac n’ cheese. This is the way I usually make mac and cheese when I’m winging it. I almost never make a creamy sauce for mac and cheese. It was good but I was thinking it was a little too oniony. I just realized that I kind of botched the recipe because I forgot the cream cheese. I’ll have to try it again. How unfortunate. Meanwhile it was the perfect comfort food for yet another crappy rainy day.
Wednesday: Oven-roasted chicken cacciatora (sorry, can’t seem to find the recipe for this one). I’ll make this tomorrow. I don’t have any salami but I think I’ll sub in some bacon that I have in the fridge. Again, how could it be bad? You toss all the ingredient in a pan and roast it. Couldn’t be simpler. I think I’ll make some egg noodles along side.
Thursday: Scandinavian spiced meatballs with caramelized apples. I LOVE swedish meatballs. I’m kind of reluctant to do this one though since I’ve been eating leftover meatballs all week for breakfast. I’m going to have to fudge it a little because I don’t have any ground chicken. I’ll have to figure out whether to use more beef or to cut the recipe down a little.
Friday: Pizza night!
I’ve been really using the new food processor. Really, a lot. So much that now I have to stop writing to go eat up all the biscuits that I made last night. Ham and cheese on a biscuit. I’ll never pay Atwater’s 7 bucks for one again! What are you cooking?
For one recipe, I didn’t want to buy buttermilk either so I made it with milk and white vinegar. Check it out: http://frugalliving.about.com/od/condimentsandspices/r/Buttermilk_Sub.htm
I really want to start blogging. I have been thinking about it for a while and don’t really trust myself to stick with it, but I want to try so that I can at least share pictures, videos and updates on the kids with my family and friends far away. I like the site you use and that people can subscribe by e-mail address, but wasn’t able to easily find out how to set one up myself. Can you please give me some tips on how to start?
Of course I will! I was going to call you to see if you were up for hanging out tomorrow or Thursday afternoon? I don’t have any idea what the weather’s supposed to be like. Is it going to keep raining?
I missed out this weekend because of the crazy weekend and no internet on Monday, but we’re mostly cooking from the freezer this week. Had burrito pie Monday and have another thawing for tonight. Fun to try other people’s recipes!
Hope you get to play outside today!!
I’m totally blanking on what we’ve been having lately. I do have a blog post ready(ish) for the meal we had on sunday because it was SO delicious. I had watched America’s Test Kitchen and they did a roasted chicken, which they cooked over a bed of potatoes. So the potatoes get all dressed in the chicken fat and basically become the most delicious things EVER. Then left over chicken went into chicken caesar salads (with julia child’s dressing recipe. i’ll never use a bottled dressing again!) Otherwise, we’ve been sticking to really easy stuff and have had cereal on more than one occassion lately. oh! we also did sausage and peppers last week. mmmmm. Another recipe from Cooks Illustrated. They’ve never done me wrong :)
You could use powdered buttermilk. I have a carton in my pantry, it lasts forever, and I don’t think it tastes much different from the carton kind.