Lovely Lovely October... 9 - 14

Oh, it's gorgeous out right now. Makes me sad that I started putting all my summery clothes away two weeks ago -- I'll hang on to these warm-weather days any old way that I can.

So you know we'll be grilling this week. How could we not? But there will also be soup... I love soup.

Saturday

Burgers on the grill... Phil puts all kinds of stuff in the burger: minced garlic, little bits of onion, salt and pepper, Worcestershire, a splash of Jack Daniel's, if we have some, a bit of cayenne or Old Bay for some kick.

We'll roast sweet potato slices in the oven, all french fry style so we can dip them in catsup.

Grilled veggies on the side. Maybe skewer some mushrooms and onions and zucchini and red pepper, maybe a foil packet of green beans or broccoli with garlic.

Sunday

Pork chops with lemon-caper sauce

Couscous

broccoli, steamed in a bit of chicken broth

(The broccoli in our garden is doing SO well right now! I just have to remember to go out and pick it before it gets dark at night. And I won't go into a lot of detail, but this past week we had an unpleasant reminder of WHY I NEED TO SOAK THE BROCCOLI IN SALT WATER BEFORE I COOK IT. Because eeewwww.)

Monday

Veggie enchiladas: This is based on my mom's enchilada technique, so I don't claim any kind of authenticity at all. But it's yummy:

1. Chop and saute a bunch of veggies: onion, mushroom, zucchini, broccoli (soaked!), garlic, tomato, bell pepper... whatever looks good. Can be as basic as mushroom-onion-zucchini.

2. Season them appropriately, add some water, and simmer for a little bit. I add a mixture of orange-colored spices: some chili powder, maybe a tiny bit of cayenne, maybe some ground chipotle.

3. Add some canned, drained and rinsed black beans. Simmer until heated through.

4. For the enchilada-creating, I do it like mom showed me: Pour some salsa in a glass baking dish. Fill a tortilla with the above mixture. Close, and nestle in the pan. I sometimes use toothpicks to keep the wrappers closed -- I tend to over-fill. Repeat until pan is full or mixture is gone. Pour more salsa over the top, spreading it around so it gets between the enchiladas. If you have any extra sauteed veggies, you can sprinkle these over everything too.

5. Pop the whole thing in the oven at about 400 degrees. This just needs to cook until the edges of the tortillas get a bit brown and crispy, but we still need some cheese on top, so after about 15 minutes, pull them out and sprinkle grated cheese (your choice, but I like a nice sharp cheddar) then return to oven until cheese is melty and a little bit browned in spots, 5 or 10 more minutes.

6. Serve with a bit of sour cream for dipping.

Tuesday

Linguine with mussels (from The Healthy Kitchen, by Andrew Weil and Rosie Daley):

I'm chopping their recipe in half-ish.

1. Cook linguine.

2. In a big lidded pot, add some white wine (a cup or so), a bit of water (1/2 cup), chopped garlic and a chopped shallot. Add a pound of cleaned mussels. Cover and cook over high heat, shaking the pot occasionally, until the mussels open -- about 10 minutes.

3. Drain pasta, toss it in the pot with the mussels.

4. Add a can of chopped tomatoes, some chopped basil, chili flakes, olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Toss again.

5. Squeeze lemon juice over everything. If you're fancy, you can garnish with fresh parsley. I won't, because I never have parsley around when I need it.

We'll have a salad and some bread with this.

Wednesday

A big salad. Probably with the following: roasted red pepper, roasted pumpkin seeds, mushrooms, onions, feta cheese, balsamic dressing. If I'm in the mood, I'll fry an egg and put it on top of the whole thing.

Thursday

Beer and cabbage soup

This is a lovely fall meal.