September 12 - 16

I planned this week's menu in the middle of my canning-palooza... I get a batch of tomato jars cooking, then have 40 minutes to kill before I go back and do it all over again. Trying to tackle a whole bushel this year. That's a lotta tomatoes.

So probably not much in the way of tomatoes for dinner this week. I'm thinking I'll need a break. But I'm loving the cooler weather (though I don't want it to get too cold too fast) and am ready for soup!

Our fall-ish menu for the week:

And happy NFL, by the way! Yahoo for football Sundays!

Sunday

Veggie beef soup: we have a big old soup bone, and we'll brown that then put it in a pan and build around it. I'm reserving the right to make a game-time decision, but now I'm thinking: saute an onion, brown the soup bone, add some water, simmer. Add other good stuff (carrots? potatoes? garlic? tomatoes? okay -- I know I said I wouldn't use them this week, but it's soup. It needs them. What else? Maybe some chopped zucchini? I don't know. Maybe some barley?).

This will need crusty bread, I think.

Monday

Mushroom ravioli with onions and basil and parmesan

Tuesday

Grilled sole: lay it out on foil, coat with olive oil, salt and pepper, and sprinkle capers all around. Grill until the thin edges get a little brown and crispy and lovely.

With it: roasted pattypan squash, bread

Wednesday

Probably a good day for leftovers -- soup, or ravioli, or if there aren't any leftovers, little flatbread pizzas will be nice, done on the grill with mushrooms, basil, sausage, feta...

Thursday

Fall means lentils!

Venison chops, pan-seared then a little bit of red wine and garlic and salt and pepper added for a little sauce

Lentils: cook them, add some sliced roasted red pepper and balsamic vinegar

Broccoli

Yum. I'm hungry NOW.

Dinner... the Back To School edition

School starts this week. Need I say more?

Monday

Trying to stick with the Meatless Monday idea, but knowing that when we come home from up north, pizza is usually on the menu... so I planned ahead a bit, and made sure we had stuff for salad:

Saute half a red onion, a handful of sliced mushrooms, a sliced red pepper and a few green beans in some olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Add to a big bowl of lettuces. Dress with balsamic vinegar. Mix. Add shredded Parmesan cheese. Top with a fried egg if you wish.

Some toasted baguette on the side.

Tuesday

I don't cook on the first day of school. So I don't know what we'll eat, but I know I won't be preparing anything. Maybe it will be red wine and dark chocolate.

Wednesday

BLTs: I like mine with mustard instead of mayo. Is that bad?

Fruit salad

Thursday

Burgers

boiled baby potatoes

whatever veggies have ripened in the garden during the last week...

August 22 - 26

Oh, it's happening already... this week, I spend pretty much every day in school-related meetings and such. And so the zombie-like state of sitting in meetings all day will be encasing my head in the evenings. So the key word is simple.

Sunday

We were up north this weekend, and so dinner tonight was take-out from our newest pizza place -- Happy's Pizza. The main focus tonight is unpacking the car and making sure there's clean, appropriate clothes available for the week.

Monday - Thursday

I haven't worked out the schedule for the week yet, but these are the options. We'll see how the week goes to decide when to have what:

a. Portobella mushroom ravioli (got it at the farmer's market a few weeks ago, and it's been waiting in the fridge. It came from Pasta e' Pasta, from Chesterfield, MI.)

b. Burgers. Alan and Rachel made some with pretzel rolls a few weeks back, and posted a photo on their blog. I've been craving pretzel rolls ever since, and so bought some and stuck them in the freezer so we'd have them around for times like this!

c. Mesquite Creek: Phil's newspaper ran a 2 for 1 coupon, and it expires soon. So we hope to get out there sometime this week and eat some yummy dinner.

d. Using-up-random-veggies-from-the-garden salad. Need I say more? Maybe there will be bread with it.

August 15 - 19

Since I'm sort of heading back to school this week (I plan to go in, drop off some stuff, measure my new area and then leave quickly again) I figured I should sort of head back into dinner routines too. We've found that, lately, planning on the fly means lots of little pizzas made on naan. Lovely, but something that's becoming more of a stand-by and less of a little treat.

Here's what I'm thinking for my sort-of plan:

Sunday

Grilled chicken breasts with barbecue sauce

Salad with sauteed mushrooms and roasted red pepper (I have about half a jar left of my original batch from last summer... The green and purple peppers are all over the farmers' markets right now, so I know the red ones should be here soon. Then I can make some more. Much more. For now, I need to be okay with finishing this last jar.)

Corn on the cob

Monday

Chilled tomato soup (from Simply Organic by Jesse Ziff Cool):

3 lbs ripe, juicy tomatoes, coarsely chopped

1 medium red onion, coarsely chopped

1 c basil leaves

1/4 c olive oil

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground turmeric

salt

pepper

sugar (optional)

Puree veggies and basil until smooth. Strain if you wish for a more refined soup. Add oil, juice, cumin, turmeric. Season w/ salt, pepper, sugar to taste. Chill.

With this, we'll have roasted corn and goat cheese quesadillas. Like a summer version of tomato soup and grilled cheese.

Tuesday

Huevos Rancheros. We'll add some chorizo to the beans.

Thursday

Fenton Farm Market is today. I'll probably just cook some of what I buy there. I'm betting a salad will be involved.

Have a good week!

Crazy Carrots!

Went to pick more of the crazy carrots yesterday. We have so many this year! I went to pickyourown.org, a great site that has directions for preserving all kinds of stuff, to get confirmation that you can, in fact, freeze carrots... and then I opened my birthday present: a Food Saver!

I documented the whole experience:

Some of the crazy carrots I picked

I think they might be mutants

G0 Food Saver Go! There is NO air left in that package. I plan to vacuum-seal all kinds of things...

A tiny little bit of a menu

It is August, after all. So we can't plan too far in advance. But we sat down yesterday and made a 2 day plan, which felt very organized of us.

Sunday night dinner:

Venison burgers (with minced garlic and onion, chile sauce, salt and pepper mixed in) with sauteed mushrooms and onions on top

Corn on the cob (from our garden! First two ears! Woot woot!)

Crazy cole slaw...

I wanted some baby carrots from the garden. Love to saute them, they're so tiny and sweet. But I've been gone for a few weeks, and the carrots have gone mutant on us in that time. So I was pulling some really big carrots, some person-shaped carrots, some zig-zag shaped carrots -- not the sweet little things I could easily saute whole. So we thought on our feet, and shredded the carrots, a zucchini, and half an onion. We got some broccoli from the garden and chopped it really small, then mixed it all together with some mayo, white balsamic vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. It was a pretty good cole slaw!

Monday

Salad with sliced red onion, red bell pepper and grilled scallops. I think I'll grill a couple peaches too, but not sure whether I'll put them on the salad or just have them as a side dish.

And yummy bread.

So there's our mini-plan. I like it.

The Theme: Ways to Use Cucumbers

So our cukes and zucchini have stepped up, big time. So planning meals isn't so much about what sounds good right now, but rather how to we incorporate these little buggers into everything we eat???

A couple ideas:

Just made a salad for lunch. Cut a cuke into four spears, then cut the spears into slices. Put in a bowl. Chop up a little roasted red pepper, drizzle some balsamic, and sprinkle roasted pumpkin seeds. Mix it up. It was really quite lovely!

Gonna try gazpacho for the first time. I've been looking at recipes, and I think this is the one I might go with:

Yellow Tomato Gazpacho

or maybe this one:

Grilled Tomato Gazpacho

or heck, maybe both! :)