How Was It?/What's for Dinner? 1/29-2/5/12

Once again the house of Whimsy is on reduced numbers, so we are deploying leftover lunch friendly, so easy the 13 year old could make it meals. Feel free to skip to last week's reviews and come back later next week for the interesting food.

Sunday: (A rescheduled meal) Chicken with Proscuitto, Asiago Cheese & Fresh Sage
Monday: Mini Meatball & Noodle Soup
Tuesday: Burritos
Wednesday: Leftovers or Dinner Out (The fate of dinner in the hands of the solar system project)
Thursday: French Bread Pizzas
Friday: (The Return of the) Frittata
Saturday: Honey-Soy Salmon with Spinach & Peppers

Review
The Pot Pie was addressed before, so we start with the salmon. I believe their may have been some operator error, definitely didn't resemble the pretty pretty magazine photos. Now some mistakes were my own, using Dijon in place of whole grain mustard, other were the people who share my house. We usually have a large container of maple syrup on hand a heads up when we have less than 2 Tablespoons seems reasonable, non? Over all a fine, but probably not to be repeated. The Brussel Sprouts were a first for me, Y was just please to see them.
Roasted Chicken was an improvement, the oven and I seem to be coming to terms with each other. However the Organic Green Gratin was very disappointing. I had it on "to try list" for months. There is a good idea in there somewhere, but unattractive in the end, the crushed cracker topping added texture, but awkwardly.
Everything else was good, but not necessarily noteworthy or postponed. I had a great crabcake on potato pancake with arugula and whole grain mustard sauce at the Irish Pub for the School of Rock plays Queen concert, as a bonus.

How Was It?/What's for Dinner? 1/22-28/12

Sunday: Creamy Chicken & Mushroom Pot Pie
Monday: Maple Glazed Salmon with Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Tuesday: Roasted Chicken & Organic Greens & Goat Cheese Gratin
Wednesday: Dinner Out
Thursday: Steak, Potatoes & Salad
Friday: Chicken with Asaigo, Proscuitto & Fresh Sage
Saturday: School of Rock Pub Night

Review
So the soup we discussed before...
Enchiladas were interesting. The crock pot was a twist and my tortilla rolling technique could be better, but they were flavorful and made good leftovers for lunch.
The middle of the week doesn't rate comment has it was all emergency quick favorites.
Frittata didn't happen. Y wasn't home, kid wouldn't appreciate it. So we had breakfast for dinner; bacon & egg sandwiches.
Saturday morning we woke up to snow. So a pot of Navy Bean Soup seemed the answer. This bumped the pot pie to Sunday. This was a perfectly fine version, but our go to Chicken Pot Pie is a curried one from Alton Brown, much more robust flavor. I think we will stick with it.

This One is Less Food, More Whimsy

If you are here for the food, feel free to skip this one. Under simplifying, I think I'll stick with one blog for now, even if some entries or off topic.

I like movies, no I really do. In my pretentious teenage years we went to the movies, the big blockbusters, the art house indies, classic films, and foreign films with great regularity. I am not always kind hearted to the college town I grew up in, but two art house cinemas was one of its better qualities. When we were going to the movies we were renting them, not at my house, but with my friends. It was rarely part of my adult relationship, although if you asked us we both like movies. I suspect we like different movies, we definitely watch them differently at home. Plus now we are old (-ish), and unless we are going to the swanky theatre with reserved seats, and beat downs will be applied to talkers and texters, we get cranky with the experience.

With that history, I realize I am not doing something I really like...seeing movies. It isn't like I don't have the time. I really do, as long as the theatres are running early afternoon weekday shows. Which BONUS, cuts down on the talkers and other idiots. So not a resolution, more a challenge...I will see two movies a month in 2012. Now if I could just remember when we saw Muppet Movie so, I know if I am already good for one in January...hmm

How Was It?/What's for Dinner? 1/16-22/12

The Whimsy household will not be at full strength for part of this week, which means there maybe a little more casual meal production. However this month's Real Simple just arrived with a food cover, so when we are all here and not scattering to a thousand different events, the choices should be new and maybe even exciting.

Monday: Sausage & Escarole (or Spinach) Soup
Tuesday: Crock Pot Bean & Spinach Enchiladas
Wednesday: Burritos
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Potato, Ham, & Spinach Frittata
Saturday: Creamy Chicken & Mushroom Pot Pie
Sunday: Maple Glazed Salmon with Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Reviews

How Was It? Well, life happened and it didn't all happen. But here is what did happen and how it went...
Crock Pot Baked Potato Soup: I liked it, but it didn't grab my attention excessively, because I kept forgetting that it existed at lunchtime and when we were in leftover mode on the weekend. Y liked it, he did eat/pack the leftovers. The Kid found it bland, even when allowed to add Cheddar and bacon.
Quiche Lorraine: The BEST Quiche I have ever made. It deserves its own post, perhaps tomorrow.
Steak with Cognac Sauce & Potatoes: It was fine, I didn't bother with the sauce, because I don't think it brings enough improvement to bother with the effort. However this is the meal where I got my salad mojo back. Yay!
Roasted Chicken with Caramelized Shallots & Mashed Potatoes When the cold weather finally settled in and I went to my favorite roasted chicken recipes things didn't not go well. A couple of old reliables, bombed. I guess it was just breaking in a new oven. It was time to get back on that horse. Still didn't achieve crispy, but it was much, much better. Still don't love this new oven that came with the house. We seem to be negotiating some kind of truce.
Creamy Spinach Salmon: meh, why frozen spinach, didn't specified thawed or still frozen, went frozen and it watered down what seemed like it might be a nice mustard-y cream sauce. It was worth the try, good ingredient list, but either details were missing and kind of a poached cooking style. Salmon is better other ways.
Parmesan & Herb Sausage, White Bean and Escarole Soup: No Parmesan & Herb Sausage to be found went Hot Italian, didn't spy any escarole either, recipe suggested spinach. Forgot to tell the boys they could augment with grated Parmesan cheese. The Kid: meh. Y: loved it. I thought it was fine, which is better than the kid's meh, but no where near Y's love of it. It will freeze fine, and Y has more winter lunches ready to go.

How Was It?/What's for Dinner? 1/9-1/15/11/12

Monday: Honey Soy Glazed Salmon with Spinach & Peppers
Tuesday: Crock Pot Baked Potato Soup
Wednesday: Quiche Lorraine/Adult Dinner Out
Thursday: Steak with Cognac Sauce & Potatoes
Friday: Creamy Spinach Salmon
Saturday: Roast Chicken & Sweet Potato Spoonbread
Sunday: Parmesan & Herb Sausage, White Bean and Escarole Soup

Reviews
Navy Bean Soup is a family favorite so no question every one was happy to see it even if the cold spell broke.
Salmon with Gingery Green Beans it is a good recipe it suffered from a little neighbor interruptus. I guess best served hot. Kid passed, had soup leftovers, but he doesn't have the health concerns that have brought the weekly salmon into rotation.

Menu Plan Revision

So life happened this week, as it does. Tuesday's dinner had to wait for Thursday, since we went to tour the local School of Rock for the kid. He is contemplating getting to know his guitar again. Well a 6:45 tour and meet potential new teacher equals dinner out, we were practically at the pub any way. Fish and Chips for me, yay!

Anyway there was a reshuffle of the menu and some additions, I really have to plan thru the weekend. It is just sooo far away when I'm sitting down with the cookbooks.

Midweek Review: Chicken with Potatoes, Bacon & Cabbage

This recipe feels a little like spinning plates, there is always something to going in, or coming out, or starting. Even when I cheat and by the pre-shredded cabbage. Nothing is hard, just busy.

Y loves this dish. I'm sure it is the vaguely german nature of the cabbage under the chicken, but it makes him happy. Kid likes it, with major exceptions. Only wants the potatoes that got crispy, and HATES the bed of cabbage. Full blown horrible face. I think this is a keeper but the kid has to make a salad so he can skip the cabbage, but it is not more work for me. I will post this one tomorrow since I don't want to lose it to some random magazine website redesign.

How Was It?/What's For Dinner?

Week in Review:

This could not have been Y's week more, the chili and soup were requests from him, and then all the experiments had an asian bent and he loves him some asian food. So he would happily welcome the return of any or all. The Chicken & Spinach being fine, but probably the least interesting.

The Kid pretty much spent the week "hatin' it". There was a lot of "Is this enough? Can I make something else now that I've tried it?" Some of it was too many veggies not from the approved list, which is longer than the approved fruit list, but doesn't give me a lot of variety. His problem with the salmon was that it was salmon. He is going to have to get used to it. I think he kind of liked the Pot Sticker Salad: there was too much soy dressing, and the bean sprouts were rather out there for him, but easy to avoid.

The pot sticker salad and salmon were the most successful. The salmon was probably the beginning of something good, the Lemon Brown Sugar glaze was both too sweet and not enough flavor for me, but I liked the sort of quick seer, finish in the oven technique. Now about the Pot Sticker Salad...I did start looking at the recipe, but it quickly went its own way. We tend to fry our pot stickers before finishing them by steaming, adds more flavor with sesame and chili oil. So after the cooked on one side and the package called for a few tablespoons of water to finish them via steam I also threw in the sugar snap peas and carrots, 3 minutes later all done and the veggies barely cooked, so much better. Kid and I, not fans of the cooked carrot; these were just right for not raw. The "steamed" veggies were served over bean sprouts which was pretty good, but I think tossed with veggies might have been better. New dressing recipe is definitely called for; I prefer the sesame in pot sticker oil, and too much soy, maybe a little rice vinegar or some thing would help. I'll write up my version when I find the right dressing.

Menu Plan:

A lot more old favorites, perhaps because it is back to school week and no one wants to think too hard. Also the kid deserves some equal time, so lots of his favorites. The two that are not old reliables are from realsimple.com, but we've had each one once before; Chicken with Potato, Bacon & Cabbage and Salmon with Gingery Green Beans & Bok Choy. I recall them being good, this will be the keeper test.