Gourmandery

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Here’s today’s status, posted at WC.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Dinner last night was easy and delicious.

Chicken Tortolini with Pesto

3-4 chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bite size chunks
1 1lb bag frozen cheese tortolini
1/2 to whole 8oz jar pesto, to taste

Cook the chicken, if you aren’t using leftovers. Cook the pasta. Toss the chicken, pasta, and pesto in a large bowl until the chicken and pasta are well covered with the pesto.

Serve with garlic bread and a salad, if you desire.

Can’t get any easier than that.

I had to make Beau’s with a different pasta since he tries to limit his dairy intake. But he liked it, so it will be repeated in the future.

Yum-may!

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Rainier cherries come into season in a couple of weeks.

I can hardly wait.

They are the most delicious, sweet cherries and I can eat pounds of them easily.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

The following is very mundane figuring-out-married-eating stuff. Mind-numbingly boring for most of you, I’m sure…

As a single person, dinner was usually scrambled eggs or a bowl of cereal. My husband expects something a little more substantial for dinner, which we like to eat together, and he prefers to eat earlier than would be possible if we waited for me to start cooking after I get home. For the past five months we’ve been hit or miss - partly because we never really talked about a strategy for meal prep given my full time work and Beau’s more flexible schedule. What’s great is that Beau is a very good cook - where he doesn’t know how to do something I give instructions, which he follows very well.

This past weekend, Beau and I scrounged for meals that were easy to prepare because we were too lazy to go to the trouble to make a nice meal that would take more time. And we don’t have enough snackable foods in the house to make do that way. What we wanted were handy leftovers that would be easy to heat up and also be a little more nutritious than hot dogs or pizza. So we discussed it, strategizing the regular weekly meal preparation so that we have plenty of leftovers for the weekend scrounges.

We’ll be out and about for most of the coming weekend with CH’s wedding festivities, which will include a few meals. So we implemented the plan for early in the week and we’ve done well.

Monday: I had purchased a pork loin vacuumed packed in a balsamic-basil marinade. Since Beau got home before I did, he put that in the oven with some potatoes to roast and two leftover roasted ears of corn from last week. We’re becoming big fans of roasted veggies - so much tastier than steamed and just as easy to prepare. Anyway, that was delicious and we had enough pork and potatoes leftover to hold for Wednesday’s (tonight’s) dinner.

Tuesday: I had also purchased a whole roaster chicken. Since Beau was home yesterday, he prepped the bird for roasting, with some chopped onions, celery, and carrots in the bottom of the roasting pan. He also started some potatoes for mashing. By the time I got home, the chicken was nearly done with delicious looking veggies, the potatoes were ready for mashing, and I started some peas on the stove to go along with it all. He started the cooking and I finished it - a great plan that works well for us. A quick cook off of the giblets in some water provided additional broth from which to start a nice gravy, which I finished off with some of the drippings from the pan. We feasted well last night and were still left with 2/3 of the chicken, half of the potatoes, and about half of the peas/roasted veggies for Thursday’s dinner (and other meals beyond as needed).

So tonight we’ll dine on the leftover pork meal, tomorrow we’ll dine on the leftover chicken meal. Friday we’ll be at the rehearsal dinner. Saturday will be a grab during the day whiel I’m working the wedding details with a nice dinner at the reception. Sunday lunch will most likely be out with my parents and dinner will probably be the rest of the chicken meal.

Next week, we’ll start the process over again.

Friday, May 26, 2006

I wasn’t able to avoid a spoiler on the Top Chef finale yesterday, but I watched it regardless of knowing who won the competition. I have many thoughts on the last segment of this cooking competition…

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Beau and I are going to meet Beth and Tim for dinner tonight in Alexandria. I sent Beth an email a couple of weeks ago, asking if they would be interested in meeting since we’re local, have a common faith, and common interests. She accepted.

It should be fun and we’re looking forward to it.

UPDATE (Sun 7:30am): Beth posted her thoughs on our meeting here. As she said, it was a fun evening that we look forward to repeating.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Top Chef will have a season two. I’m happy about this because I think it’s a good competition.

However, my favorite chef competition, Hell’s Kitchen is also returning. Yay! We loves Gordon Ramsay.

Speaking of HK, last season’s runner-up was on Iron Chef America this weekend and got demolished by Bobby Flay.

I love my Food TV.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

So I went upstairs to the Big Toe™ (also known as The Deli Upstairs) to get some chips to eat with my turkey sandwich. I managed not to beat the rush of folks on their lunch break from The Circus™. But that was OK, my trip in there was still short.

On my way out I was almost mowed down by this guy as he came down the escalator from a higher floor. Almost, but he sure was in a hurry ... to get in line to order his own lunch.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Our Cake Lady brought in a cake for the folks with March birthdays. I wasn’t going to eat any, but I passed the room, saw it, was feeling good, so I got a piece.

Where I was slightly concerned that there might be a problem with the baby because I was feeling so good (see Whiny Complaints for explanation), I no longer have that concern because my queasiness is back in full force.

Sugar + Jen’s baby = Bad

Fortuntately, I have a part of my hamburger lunch leftover, so I’m going to reheat that to counter the sugar.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

So I’ve been watching a lot more of the Food Network lately. Seems weird given my morning all day sickness, but I can look at food on TV where I can’t look at some foods in real life. I’m thinking it’s the smell and 3D factor. Who knows!

Anyway, I managed to catch all of the Chefography shows but the one about Emeril. I found Ina Garten‘s and Paula Deen‘s stories the most fascinating since they have no formal culinary training and yet they have amazing skills in the kitchen.

I’m also watching this season of The Next Food Network Star. I think it will come down to Guy and Nathan with Guy winning. At least he’s my pick so far.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

I got a hankering for Baja Fresh at about 11am today. So at noon I called in an order for lunch and then went out to pick it up. All excited, I cleared space on my desk and started to eat, anticipating the flavors I had been salivating for for almost 2 hours.

None of it tastes right. Not that it wasn’t prepared properly. It’s beautiful. But my pregnant taste buds do not interpret the combination of flavors as my brain remembers them.

So sad.

Didn’t stop me from eating half of it anyway. I’m saving the other half for a snack in an hour or so.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

One of our admins is retiring. Her last day in the office is in a couple of weeks, but she has a lot of sick leave accrued and will be using that until her official last day. She’s solitary and didn’t want a huge luncheon, but she did want to go to lunch with My Boss and me. I forgot that today was the day.

What stinks is that she’s an early bird that gets to the office at 6:30am, so she was ready for lunch at 11am. I usually eat lunch at around 1pm since I’m here until 5:00-5:30pm. So here I sit at about 2pm, with three more hours to my day, but feeling like it’s almost time to go home.

Plus, it’s a little boring in the office while The Circus™ is on hiatus this week. I believe that party will resume on schedule next week, so I’ve got that going for me.

We went to the Great American Steak & Buffet, by the way.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

I think I’m going to try making this for dinner tonight. I’ve got salmon fillets in the frig and wanted to try something new. Sounds tasty.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Lee Anne tagged me.

1. How many meals does most of your family eat at home each week? How many are in your family?
It’s just Beau and I and we eat most meals at home. Lunches M-F are at work, but all other meals are pretty much at home.

2. How many cookbooks do you own?
Too many to count. I inherited quite a collection when my grandmother died over 10 years ago. I’ve collected a lot over the years as well.

3. How often do you refer to a cookbook each week?
Cookbook, not often actually. I have a random collection of loose recipes that I go to the most. Things that I got from online or my mother or friends or that I made up and happened to write down.

4. Do you collect recipes from other sources?
See above.

5. How do you store those recipes?
In a gallon ziplock bag. I know, I’m administrative and highly organized. You’d think I had a lovely binder with everything categorized. Nope, I store them in a bag.

6. When you cook, do you follow the recipe pretty closely, or do you use recipes primarily to give you ideas?
It depends. Often I’ll follow a recipe to the letter. Other times I just throw things in the mix. I’m more particular about following a recipe when I bake because the chemistry of baking is so precise.

7. Is there a particular ethnic style or flavor that predominates in your cooking?
Not really.

8. What’s your favorite kitchen task related to meal planning and preparation?
Pretty much everything but the clean up afterwards.

9. What’s your least favorite part?
See above.

10. Do you plan menus before you shop?
Sort of. I prepare a list based on things I think I might cook.

11. What are your three favorite kitchen tools or appliances?
Beau’s cast iron skillet, rice cooker, bread maker

12. If you could buy one new thing for your kitchen, money was no object and space was not an issue, what would you most like to have?
A whole new kitchen? Renting means you’re limited to what the homeowner has. My house is 20 years old and the kitchen looks it. I’d like a complete overhaul with stainless appliances, Silestone counters, and a double sink.

13. Since money and space probably are objects, what are you most likely to buy next?
A new, much quieter dishwasher.

14. Do you have a separate freezer for storage?
No, but I’d like to have one.

15. Grocery shop alone or with others?
Alone - Beau and I have tried to shop together a few times and we bought way more than we needed or planned. We each do much better when we shop alone.

16. How many meatless main dish meals do you fix in a week?
Not many. Beau likes a well rounded meal - he’s a hearty eater.

17. If you have a decorating theme in your kitchen, what is it?
Renter’s eclectic chic.

18. What’s the first thing you ever learned to cook, and how old were you?
I have no clue, but it was probably eggs in some form. Somehow I’ve always known how to cook scrambled eggs or an omelet.

19. How did you learn to cook?
I watched my mother as a child. When I had my own place and really started to cook, I used recipes until I felt that I had the ability and confidence to experiment. Later, I went to culinary school for a year - that was the true education.

20. Tag two (OK, three) other people to play.
I won’t tag - if you play, let me know in the comments.

Monday, January 30, 2006

We had a good weekend despite my cold. The coughing was the tough thing that kept me up each night, but it’s much better today. I’m thankful and tired. The amazing thing is that Beau says the coughing didn’t bother him at all. Weird.

We had planned a trip to H’burg for church yesterday, but decided against it because of my cold. So we met up with Dad at the early service at our church (Mom was up north babysitting CootieGirl and CootieBoy while their parents were exploring and closing on their new land in South Carolina). After church, Dad came over to our house for a lunch of leftovers from the turkey dinner on Saturday night, which was fabulous.

After Dad left, we cleaned up and I started a pot of turkey stock with the carcass and leftover veggies (onions, carrots, celery) that I had roasted in the pan with the bird. From the stock, I made a pot of turkey soup and then split the rest of the stock into three quart-sized ziplock bags for freezing.

While the stock was simmering we watched the last disc of the Firefly DVDs. I am officially a Whedonerd. I ended up watching Serenity later, too. It was as much fun as when we saw it in the theater, but I caught more of the insider things this time from having watched the Firefly DVDs.

So now it’s another work week. Joy.