Recipes to Go: 507 280
Weeks to Go: 52 29
Recipes Made This Week
Black Bean Asparagus Salad
Pan-Fried Venison Steak
Swiss-Almond Floret Bake
Tangy Rhubarb Fool
Meat Loaf with Potato Crust
Savory Grilled Potatoes
Next Day Turkey Primavera
Cranberry Swirl Loaf
As odd as it sounds, after Thanksgiving I was getting nervous about running out of recipes. Not that I would get through the 507 early, but that I would get to the end and all that would be left would be desserts and I'd have to make and eat 10 desserts a week. I don't really have a sweet tooth, so the idea didn't appeal to me. So I did a little inventory. I sat down and divided everything into categories again and did extra tallies for the recipes that I consider more appropriate for summer and looked to see how many of each thing I had. Well, turns out I have about 6 weeks worth of summer recipes (perfect) and the rest are split about evenly. So, to make my life easier, I just have to pick 3 main dishes, 3 side dishes, and 3 desserts every week. Then with breakfast on Saturday I have 10 recipes. I can pretty much count on two desserts for game night, which means we only have 1 to eat during the week. That's something I can live with. And suddenly weekly menus are much easier to plan.
Lest you start to question my intelligence waiting so long to do this, I did try to start something like this at the beginning, but the whole thing was a little overwhelming and I had to get my feet on the ground before I could run in a specific direction.
So now I had a plan. The problem this week, aka why I only have 8 recipes, is that we didn't have Game Night again, this time because we weren't home. We took a part business/part pleasure trip to DC over the weekend and so I didn't get any cooking done on Friday or Saturday. So I carried over the two desserts into the next week, which got a little crazy . . . but more on that later.
Some friends asked us over to dinner on Sunday, and since they know about my goal, they asked if I had a side dish to bring. Check and check. The black bean salad was good. Sadly, I didn't taste it before I left because I would have added more salt, which was all it needed, so it didn't get the rave reviews it deserved. Luckily, that just meant we had leftovers for us to enjoy, and with a touch of salt, we did.
Not letting any grass grow under my feet with the new plan in place, on Monday I cooked up some venison and a casserole. I consider myself lucky to have started this whole scheme in a place where I've been able to find everything I need. Sure, I have to drive 1/2 hour one way to get to the only decent grocery store in the area once a week, but it's been wonderful for my planning skills (not to mention saving on gas). And unlike other places I've lived, here I am surrounded by hunters. Fairly successful hunters, too, who are nice enough to generously share of their spoils. That's how I came by quite a bit of venison. The sweet young man who gave it to me didn't even care about getting paid for it either. I love this town!
So, this was my first experience using the venison. It came apart when The Husband flattened it out for me, so we ended up with lots of little stakes to fry. The saltine coating was perfect, and the meat is so sweet that The Captain ate it up without complaint.
The floret bake was super easy since I just used two bags of frozen broccoli and cauliflower heads. It was much cheaper than buying the real stuff out of season. Thank goodness for frozen food. It was very tasty, but due to a car battery mishap, I had to put it together rather quickly to go rescue The Husband from work. This meant I didn't get to mix it all together before sticking it in the oven, so the yummiest part was just on the top. This is something I'd make again, though, especially if I find myself with an overabundance of broccoli and cauliflower.
Tuesday was spent eating leftovers, so I made dessert to go with it. Luckily for me, I bought a lot of rhubarb to freeze, so I can enjoy it all winter (since I fell in love with it this summer). I didn't take the time to chop it up really small before putting it all together, which I think I will do next time. And there will be a next time because The Husband raved about this. I loved it. It was made with plain yogurt, so it's relatively healthy and very tangy. Which is what we both loved about it. It was definitely a dessert, but one that didn't make me feel like I needed a trip to the dentist when I was done. It was so refreshing. So definitely on the Make Again list.
Wednesday I made the meat loaf. Since I was making a potato side dish with it, I didn't put a potato crust on top.
I really love the curry powder in the recipe, but The Husband wasn't as much of a fan. I guess I'll stick to the other meat loaf he "could get behind".
The grilled potato recipe I was interested to try. Because it is made in foil, it is something I could potentially make in the fireplace should the power go out for an extended period. There were major power outages in the area last year due to unseasonable snow, and the snow seems to have come back this year. I've become a little paranoid, so it's nice to have some plans on the back burner.
Since this recipe was essentially potatoes and onions, it shouldn't be too hard to keep those things on hand, so I'll just give it a few hours, and we can at least have something hot to eat should the power go out.
My favorite recipe this week was the Turkey Primavera. I can see why it won the turkey leftover contest. It was such a good flavor, just from an Italian salad dressing mix, and with all the veggies, it was easy to look past the heavy whipping cream in the sauce.
I will probably be making the vegetarian version of this recipe a lot in the summer because it would be a great way to use up garden veggies. And I don't think anyone would complain having to eat it a few weeks in a row.
Since we were leaving early in the morning on Friday, I made the Cranberry Swirl Loaf Thursday night. As always, the yeast and I had a fight. I lost strictly because of time, but the end result was still good. The time factor also kept me from letting the cranberry filling cool enough. I think it's supposed to be like jam, but it was more like sauce, which made for some messy jelly rolling. In the end, the stuff that leaked out in the pan acted as a glaze and was very yummy, so all's well that ends well, I guess.
This was delicious. I love cranberries deeply. I have a lot in my freezer to use this winter. Sadly, I didn't put nuts in this either, but we managed to eat the whole thing anyway. Actually, we almost ate the whole thing in the car it was so good.
No comments:
Post a Comment