February 22 - 26

We made massive quantities of spaghetti sauce yesterday (had to move things from the regular-sized stock pot to the "I Mean Business" -sized stockpot) and so are trying to figure out how to incorporate leftovers into our week without turning tomato-sauce colored.

Sunday

I'm thinking just straightforward spaghetti again tonight.  There's leftover garlic bread too.  Shall I breathe my garlicky breath on you?

Monday

Pork tenderloin, sweet potato

We found this bottle of white zinfandel in our wine rack that we received as a gift.  Thought it would be lovely with some pork, so we'll try this:

Sear a whole tenderloin in a pan.  Pull it out.  Add some chopped onion, garlic, apples.  Saute.  Pour in some of the sweet wine, deglaze the pan, put the pork back in, simmer it up.

Also, roast some sweet potatoes in the oven.  Chop, olive oil, salt, pepper, spread on a sheet and bake at 400 for 20 - 30 or so minutes.

Tuesday

An actual recipe...  this one's from the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home book:

Black Bean Soup (I'll cut the recipe in half, but I'm typing the whole thing here so I don't have to do any division this morning)

10 sun dried tomatoes (not packed in oil)

1 cup boiling water

1 1/2 cups finely chopped onions

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 jalapeno, minced, or 1/4 tsp cayenne

2 tablespoons veg. oil

1 tsp ground cumin (I will not cut this in half, for I am a lover of cumin)

1/3 c water

3 c undrained canned tomatoes (28 oz can)

4 c undrained cooked black beans (2 16 oz cans)

1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro (but let's be real...  I'll be using the dried stuff, since it's February and I really hate to buy herbs at the grocery store unless ABSOLUTELY necessary...  several dollars for a few leaves seems silly to me)

additional water or tomato juice

yogurt or sour cream

1.  In a small bowl, cover the sun-dried tomatoes with boiling water, set aside.

2.  In a soup pot, saute onions, garlic, chile/cayenne.

3.  Add cumin, 1/3 c water, juice of tomatoes.

4.  Chop up tomatoes, add them.  Cover and bring to a boil.

5.  Lower heat and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes.

6.  Add black beans and their liquid (although, you know, I'll probably rinse them and just compensate with some extra water... there's soooo much salt in the liquid in bean cans)

7.  Simmer and stir.

8.  Drain and chop the sun-dried tomatoes.  Add to the soup and cook for 5 or 10 minutes more.

9.  Puree half the soup and return it to the pot (I love my stick blender -- I can just put it right in the pot so I don't have to mess with pouring some of the hot soup into a blender and burning myself and making a huge mess).  If it's too thick, add water or tomato juice.

10.  Serve with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream.

Enjoy!

Wednesday

Um, leftovers?

Thursday

Cumin-Coriander Crusted Salmon

wheat pilaf (you know, from the box?)

broccoli