Dinners, First Week of April 2011

I must be reaching that rung of life's ladder where cooking matters. First year of marriage. First real kitchen. First chance to fill the cupboards with things I love and keep that little countertop sparkling every day. I've found I love cooking. I love planning meals for the week, shopping (first at ALDI, then at Giant for the things I can't find), and putting things away like a little field-mouse... I usually do well with dinners and have recently found great success with some new recipes (Lemon Chicken Stir Fry, Beef Bacon Stroganoff). But this week my cooking was less than stellar. On the whole, it was just food. Not really a collection of meals. Thankfully, Pete is an awesome husband and gracefully ate every bite.

First of all, there had been a minor fire at my ALDI store, so I was forced to do all my shopping at Giant. This used to be fine with me back when I was blissfully ignorant of a whole store of generic food and shopped only at Giant and, yes, Wegmans. But now I am appalled at what Giant charges for simple ingredients and get all I can at ALDI. To save, I went easy on the groceries this week, planning to make do with what I already had. I had potato soup on my menu, for example, because I had some potatoes I'd forgotten about up on top of the cabinet and I thought I should use them up. When I got the bowl down, though, they were ogling me with dozens of growthy eyes, and leaning a bit towards the softish side, so after doing a bit of online research about the edibleness of eye-studded potatoes, I determined I should toss them. That left me one meal down. Fortunately, I still had a packet of Shake 'n' Bake in the cupboard, so I scribbled out potato soup and jotted Shake 'n' Bake Pork in instead. Under that I wrote Apple Slices.

Monday was going to be Lasagna Pie out of my Betty Crocker Annual Recipes Cookbook, but when I got home from work I saw that it would take 44 minutes to bake, and I didn't have that much time. It was Craft Night at church. So I swapped the Lasagna Pie for Thursday's plan: Taco Salad. This was the single triumph of my week and only because it's impossible to ruin Taco Salad. I brown the meat with some onions while chopping up black olives, green peppers, and more onions. When the meat's done, I add a packet of taco seasoning with 2/3 cup of water and let it thicken a bit. Some rinsed green leaf lettuce (placed on the table still in the colander), tortilla chips (straight from the bag), salsa, sour cream, and a bag of shredded Mexican cheese make for minimal dishes when it's time to clean up. And it's remarkably filling. The leftovers gave me two delicious lunches Tuesday and Wednesday, definitely a perk in my full-time working life.

Tuesday's pork was when things started to go downhill. First of all, I guess I had a coupon, but normally I do not buy Shake 'n' Bake. It's just got something slightly chemically about it that I can avoid by using a bag of plain breadcrumbs, basil, and pepper. Also, I've never liked pork. In Tuesday's case, the pork tasted alright, although overly salty for some reason, but it did not crisp up the way it should. The Shake 'n' Bake breading was gummy and wet. Ick. The apple slices, paired with extra sharp cheddar cheese, though, were perfect.

Wednesday I planned to get the agony over with and eat Tuesday's two leftover pork chops. I made a box of Zatarain's cheesy rice, reheated the pork in the toaster oven, then chopped it and tossed it with the rice. It wasn't bad, actually. I made steamed broccoli - one of my specialties - and the whole thing turned out OK. OK enough, in fact, that I took the rest for Thursday's lunch.

When Thursday evening rolled around, it was time for the Lasagna Pie, something that sounded so weird I'd been dreading it all week. It actually started its relationship with me on last week's menu, but was scribbled out in favor of leftover Italian sausage soup. I had time for the 44 minutes of baking on Thursday, so there was no more excuse. The Lasagna Pie is made with Bisquick, eggs, ground beef (which in my life translates to ground turkey), tomato paste, lots of cheese, and several other generally yummy-sounding things. But somehow the prospect of all of it together made me crinkle my nose. I recalled something Mom called Impossible Cheeseburger Pie which, while sounding similarly nose-crinkle-worthy, was actually something I remembered fondly. I googled this and found it to be a simpler Betty Crocker recipe with fewer ingredients and the benefit of being linked to positive memories of youth. I made it. We both loved it, had second helpings and took it for lunch today. This will be a new stock recipe for me, just like I suspect it was for Mom.

Friday is always left blank and today that meant stromboli for Pete and a chicken caesar sandwich for me, both from Giovanni's down the street. It was a yummy dinner, one eaten far too quickly, and one that mostly required crumpling aluminum foil to clean up.

Tomorrow is menu day. My goal: A list of meals that don't scare me. A focus on foods I already love to make. Forecast for next week's evening meals: Perfect.