What's for Dinner?

When David and I got married he knew how to make 5 'homemade' things.  Stroganoff, Chili, Spaghetti, Lasagna, and Oatmeal Crispies.  He had recipes for these 5 items and still uses those recipes to make them whenever he cooks.  The recipes have evolved
somewhat over the years, but even though he says he could do it without reading the recipe, he always get s the book out to double check that he hasn't forgotten anything. 

For baking, I understand that.  For cooking - I can't think of the last time that I used a recipe to make a main course.  Certainly I have some good recipes for main dishes, but here's how it usually works at my house:

Get home from work.
Open the refrigerator to see what is in there that might become dinner. 
Open the freezer to check the same thing.
Think about what I had for lunch so I don't duplicate the starch.  (You know - like if I had rice and something for lunch I don't want rice and something for dinner).
Think about what has been in the refrigerator for a while and needs to be used.  (Don't even pretend you don't do that too!)

Decide to eat out.

Just kidding - I don't do that every time - just sometimes.

Interestingly, what happens is this:  I can usually create something pretty good, and generally I never make it again because I don't have those exact same ingredients to be used.

Case in point - Dinner last night.

I had left over Curry with rice for lunch.  So - no rice.  We are currently out of potatoes.  So that means noodles.  I have 2 boxes of rigatoni noodles in the pantry.  I don't know why.  We have quite a lot of cheese - which is a good thing, but some of it had been around for a while - so I started thinking about a sort of macaroni and cheese dish.  But I'm the sort of person who likes to have meat at suppertime uusually.   I had some frozen sliced spicy sausage that I bought because I had a coupon.  (With no idea what I would do with it - but I love spicy sausage so I thought - What the heck.)  I also bought a red pepper at the store because all of the vegetables in the middle of the winter are so boring, and a red bell pepper is so pretty.  It was starting to get a little wrinkly -

 I put the noodles on to boil, turned the oven on, chopped up an onion.  Sauteed the onion with some garlic - threw in half of the red pepper that had been diced along with about 5 stalks of asparagus.  Drained the noodles, added the veggies and meat into a bowl.  Made a roux in the sauce pan (less clean up), and then added some milk and about a half a cup of cream cheese (which I bought a while ago and hadn't done anything with) some grated parmesan, and some yummy gouda (the stuff that was getting sort of old) and made a cheese sauce.  Mixed everything together, popped it in the oven for a half an hour or so - and Yum Yum Yum. 

It just started me thinking about the whole meal process because honestly - the above is a pretty normal way for me to make dinner. 

When the kids were growing up David would often mention that we should make dinner together with them.  But when you're making a plan as you go, it's kind of hard to get others involved - unless you can get them to do your chopping for you. 

So dinner last night was great.  We probably won't ever have that exact same thing again.  Or we might - you never know.

Winter Wonderland

Valentine Dinner

Although David and I like to go out for dinner, going out on Valentine's Day - especially when it's on a weekend night - is not something we get excited about.  Too many people, waiting, pricey meals.  But at the same time, we like to recognize that it's a special night.  Which at our house means ordering pizza.  No - I'm kidding.  Seriously, it means making a fabulous meal at home.  So that's what we did last night. 

For an appetizer, I made stuffed mushrooms.  I found a new recipe where you sort of roast the mushrooms first so they aren't as wet when you stuff and bake them.  Boy was I surprised at how small they became after roasting them in the oven for about a half an hour.  (First I 'de-stemmed them, tossed them with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and put them gill side down on a sheet lined with foil)  You know about how big a regular white mushroom is.  I know the sizes vary, but these were what I would call a sort of 'regular' size.  about a dozen in a package.  After roasting them, they were about the size of a quarter.  I stuffed them with some boursin cheese:

The plates that these are on are about 5 inches across the wider side of the oval.  So you can see how tiny they got.  But man oh man were they delicious.  That prebaking gave them a really intense mushroom flavor.  I'm not sure I'd make these for a crowd - even though they were really easy, you'd need a LOT of mushrooms because they definitely become bite-sized when they're done. 

After we had that little snack, we got to work on dinner.  We made risotto with shrimp and asparagus.  David had a choice of working on either the risotto, or getting the shrimp and asparagus ready.  He chose the risotto.  He'd never made it before, and was kind of nervous, but I explained that it's not hard, just a bit tedious.  I'd already put the chicken stock in a pan on the stove to warm, and chopped up some onion, so he just had to follow the recipe on the back of the package.  While he worked on that, I got the shrimp ready.  I'd found a recipe (in the same book the mushroom recipe came from) that suggested a different way to do shrimp.  I've found that often when you are cooking shrimp, they tend to get 'too done'.  This recipe specifically noted that, and so the directions were to bring water and some spices and lemon to a boil, take the pan OFF the heat, dump the shrimp in, and let it sit for about 7 minutes.  (I figured they could sit until we were ready - 7 wasn't critical).First I took all of the tails off.  One of my minor pet peeves is trying to eat shrimp neatly and having to deal with all of the tails.  I mean - the rest of the shell comes off.  Why not the tail too!  After I finished the shrimp I put the asparagus on.  I like to just bring a tiny bit of water to boil in a big pan, put the asparagus in, just let it get crunchy/soft, drain the water, and put a little butter and salt into the hot pan (off the heat again). 

I should mention that the night before I made some parmesan crisps, and a fabulous brownie with caramel and nuts in the middle.

When the risotto was done, we plated it with the shrimp, asparagus and crisps.  Of course we ate in the dining room with a fire in the fireplace.

Doesn't that look fabulous?  And let me tell you, the shrimp was PERFECT.  Cooked, but not rubbery.  I'll do them that way from now on.  Although David had been making fun of the parmesan crisps (which are basically a pile of grated parmesan cheese cooked in the oven until they get crisp) he LOVED them.  I won't tell you how many he had :)

Of course after all of this goodness we had to go watch the Olympics for a while before we could have dessert.  I bought a very small container of vanilla bean ice cream to go with the brownie.  Only a small container because we don't need to have that in the house on a regular basis.  We ate brownies and ice cream in front of the television.  But hey - that's the great part about eating at home instead of in a restaurant.  I think I had my pajamas on by the too. 

I hope you all had a fabulous evening, whatever you chose to do. 

Winter Driving

Chasing you tightly

Discontinued Items

I noticed a week or so ago that the pair of sweat pants that I wear all the time in the winter was wearing out.  To the point where soon I won't be able to wear them out of the house.  The sad part is that I know that I will at some point wear them out of the house because I won't feel like changing.  So it's time to get a new pair.  Before I embarass myself.

Basic, black, Hanes sweat pants without the elastic around the bottom of the legs.  They fit me PERFECTLY and I bought the two pair that I currently have at Target.  Simple, right?  Wrong.  I went to Target on Saturday to buy a replacement pair, and apparently Target is not selling these any more. 

So I figure I have two choices. 

Choice #1.  Spend the next 6 months searching for these sweat pants every time I go out.

Choice #2.  Spend the next 6 months buying other brands that don't fit the same way.

It's a conundrum I tell you!  Why can't things stay the same!!  They fit the way I like, I know my size, and they were readily available at a store in my town. 

This is not the first time that this has happened to me, and I'm sure it won't be the last, but boy, oh boy, is it frustrating. 

I've had this conversation with my sister about bras also.  You know how it is:  You have one that fits right, you know your size, and just about the time you need a new one, they stop making that style and come up with something completely WRONG. 

I did finally go on Amazon and found out that WalMart sells Hanes sweat pants.  Sadly, there is not a WalMart in my town, but I stopped on the way home from work yesterday and bought a pair.  And OF COURSE they are not the same.  They are 'less expensive'  (i.e. - CHEAPER) and don't fit the same way that the old ones do.  Figures.

I know this all makes me sound old - and I am - but it seems like some things could stay the same.  I 'get' that fashions change, but I'm not really talking about fashion here - I'm talking basics.  They should stay the same.  Forever. 

Lefse and the makings of traditions