Not planning. Not now, anyway.

So, in the summer, it's much harder for me to make long-term dinner plans, just because I don't really want to... If I have a bit more time and flexibility, I'm happy to go with the flow and decide each day what sounds good, or plan based on what's ripe in the garden.

But we're still making some good stuff, and I like to keep track of recipes that work.

So last night we had lovely gazpacho, along with grilled chicken and salad.

The gazpacho was easy and yummy:

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, diced

1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced

6 tomatoes, diced

1 sweet onion, diced

half a red onion, diced

handful of basil leaves, thin sliced

6 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

bit of salt and pepper

dash of sriracha

Mix it all up, put batches of it in the food processor, and blend until it's the consistency you like. I made mine still a little bit chunky. I left about a cup unblended, and just stirred the bigger pieces in with all the rest. Refrigerate.

This is some gazpacho with goat cheese on baguette.

June 12 - 16

Last week of school! Woo hoo!

It's Sunday night, I'm sitting in the sun on my deck smelling the gorgeous smell of dinner cooking on the grill. Trying to keep the squirrels and bunnies from tearing apart the garden so we can enjoy some of it ourselves, we've been out here a lot lately. Not sure if it's helping, but I'll always take an excuse to sit on the deck.

As it's the end of the school year, and my exhaustion level is impossible to predict, dinner this week is simple stuff. But I'm excited, nonetheless.

Sunday

We're breaking out the rotisserie for the grill for the first time this year, and are cooking a chicken (actually, we're cooking two -- I got one out of the freezer, and later, Phil got one out -- we both remembered we'd like to grill chicken this weekend, but didn't really communicate well other than that, and both were partially thawed before we realized. A silly misunderstanding, kind of like an episode of Three's Company, right?).

So I rubbed between the skin and the meat of one of the chickens. My flavoring was this: three big cloves of garlic, chopped, and an ice-cube of pesto (that's how I freeze the pesto when I make it) and salt and pepper and olive oil and white wine vinegar. Mix it all, moosh it all around under the skin.

Phil flavored his more barbecue-y -- tangy and sweet and a little spicy. But we're learning to go easy on the sugar with these things -- we once made a rotisserie chicken resembling a football, because the sugar in the rub kept flaming up and it turned the skin into a black crisp. But the inside was juicy...

And we'll roast potatoes and have some fresh Michigan asparagus with.

Monday

I got a whole bunch of peas at the farmer's market yesterday. Fresh peas are such a treat. We're having risotto.

Shiitake and sweet pea risotto

Salad (we'll be eating salad a lot lately -- strangely, none of the little critters are going for the lettuce in the garden, so there's plenty of that.)

Tuesday

Grilled pork chops

Asparagus

Grilled tomatoes and vidalia onion

Wednesday

Fried rice with stuff in it (if you're a frequent reader of this blog, you know the drill -- saute lots of veggies, one at a time, maybe some chicken, add pre-cooked brown rice, soy sauce, sriracha, then make a well in the middle and add some egg. Scramble it up and mix it in.)

Have a grand week!

June Food (June 4 - 9, specifically)

And now it's June... and stuff is starting to show up in the garden, which puts me SO in a food mood. Granted, the garden is coming in dribs and drabs, but just the joy of going out to pick a little bowl of lettuce for salad, or mint for a mojito, or strawberries for dessert is exciting in a way that isn't entirely appropriate.

So we've been using those little bits that have become ready, mixed in with lots of other good food. Our menu:

Saturday

Lamb burgers (1 pound ground lamb, chopped shallot, red onion, mint, parsley and salt and pepper) on whole wheat buns with a bit of feta on top

Salad (from our garden, yahoo) with mushrooms, lemon juice, and olive oil

Sweet potato chunks roasted in foil on the grill

Sunday

Grilled chicken breasts with pesto on top

Grilled asparagus

Grilled vidalia onion, cherry tomato, and mushrooms (done in foil) with a bit of parmesan on top at the end

Tuesday

A guy at the farmers market was selling lovely steaks on Saturday, so I had to buy some:

Grilled filet mignon

More grilled asparagus (I plan to eat it daily until it's not in season anymore)

Grilled mushrooms and onions

Wednesday

Fajitas: when cleaning out the freezer, we found some chuck roast that we had slow-cooked and shredded, saving it for a time when we'd need some quick cooking. Then we forgot about it. So we're putting it in fajitas tonight, and the rest of the plan is pretty slap-dash: onions and mushrooms, of course, and probably corn and red peppers from the freezer. Seasonings (cayenne, cumin, chili powder, jalapeno) and put it all in a tortilla. A bit of guacamole and salsa.

Thursday

Another freezer find: spaghetti squash! I cooked up a bunch last fall, shredded it so it looked like spaghetti noodles (so fun!) and froze it in single-serving bags. But at some point this winter, I lost total control of our freezer inventory. But control was regained this weekend, and I know what's in there again, so we're using stuff. So tonight is sauteed veggies with pesto and spaghetti squash. Maybe a bit of bacon for fun, or maybe just parmesan cheese. If it was a tough day, maybe both. And probably some fresh basil from the herb garden, eve though there's already pesto. Just because it's fun to pick things.

Have a grand week!

It's Been a Month...

I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted on this. Which means it's been over a month since we've lived with a weekly dinner menu. Which means it's been over a month since we've been planful or careful or choosy about our dinners. Our lives have been a bit of a cooking desert in the last month, but I think we've crossed to the other side. I need for us to have crossed to the other side of that food desert, because I can't face many more evenings of scrounging around for something sort of edible or just ordering pizza.

We all have those months, right?

So I'm baby-stepping back into this. We got back from the holiday weekend at about 7:00 tonight, only to find that the Thai food we wanted to order was unavailable... they took Memorial day off? What?

So we ended up with chicken quesadillas (Phil's had Monterey Jack, and mine had goat cheese) with whole wheat tortillas. We also made a warm salad-type thing: sauteed red onion, red bell pepper, black beans and corn, seasoned with chili powder, cayenne, cumin, salt, pepper, and lime juice. Amazingly, we had one usable onion left in the house, and one chicken breast in the freezer, and bits of random cheeses, and chopped peppers and corn in the freezer. So it sort of worked.

With that under the belt, I'm ready to try a mini-plan for the rest of the week:

Tuesday

Pasta with morels, bacon, peas and goat cheese: We had LOTS of luck hunting morels up north this weekend, so plan to use our share like this:

1. Chop and saute bacon pieces. Remove from pan to drain, wipe bacon drippings from pan.

2. Cook pasta (linguine?).

3. Saute morels in olive oil, a bit of butter, and some chopped garlic.

4. After they're well-cooked, add the bacon and the pasta with a little bit of pasta water to make it all stick. Add a handful of peas and some goat cheese and swirl it all together.

Salad on the side.

Wednesday

Grilled pork chops

Grilled potatoes (dice some redskins, put in foil with some olive oil and onions, put on the top rack of the grill for about 30 minutes)

Might attempt a rhubarb sauce -- we have tons of it in the garden -- for the chops.

Salad

Thursday

Scallops with spinach and paprika syrup

Roasted sweet potatoes

If we can make it through this, we might be back on a dinner track that I'll be happy about. Wish us luck!

April 24 - 29

Happy Easter! Happy Spring! This is my new attitude -- I'm going to pretend it's warm and springy and maybe it will be, eventually. So the electric blanket got put away, along with the tall boots and the thick black tights. I'm wearing open-toed sandals in 40-degree weather, but I'm sure that if I think warm thoughts, the weather will follow, right?

And I'm carrying that philosophy into dinner, too. Enough with the slow cooker and the soup for a while. (But I love soup, right? So I'll probably be back to it soon, craving heavy all-day-cooked stuff in, say, July. But oh well.)

So this is the plan:

Sunday

Dinner is mainly to recover from brunch. Oh, that damn dessert table!

Shrimp Cobb Salad

Monday

City Slicker Omelets: There's this little breakfast place up north in Alden, MI, that has these lovely omelets. They're called City Slicker omelets, but they're basically just filled with tomato, onion, and feta cheese. I get a little crazy and have them add mushrooms too. So tonight I'm having a City Slicker omelet. Can't speak for what Phil will choose to put in his, but I'm pretty sure tomatoes won't be there. :)

Tuesday

Grilled chicken breasts (maybe with barbecue sauce!)

Grilled green beans -- put them in foil with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. Leave the top of the foil open so they don't just steam, then put on the grill for 10 minutes or so, tossing them from time to time so they can get sort of browned and lovely.

Salad

Wednesday

Sole with capers: Put a piece of sole on foil, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper (yes, just like yesterday's green beans -- it's my fall-back grilling method) and sprinkle capers all around it. Grill it on fairly high heat so the bottom gets a little brown and the edges a bit crispy. Drizzle fresh lemon juice at the end.

We'll have grilled zucchini and tomatoes to go with, and also salad.

Thursday

Probably a leftover night... nothing too exciting!

Friday

Don't usually post Friday night dinners, because it's often random take-out, but I'm planning this one already. I have my last really long training run (in preparation for the Bayshore Marathon) on Saturday, and my pre-race/pre-long run dinner is pizza... (as many carbs as spaghetti -- or so -- and more delicious!).

And I'm loving the crust that I make in my Kitchen Aid -- it's my best crust ever -- so I'll be making homemade pizza Friday night.

The crust is crazy easy: Dissolve 2 and 1/4 tsp. yeast in a cup of warm water, then add a half teaspoon of salt, 2 tsp. olive oil, and then 2 and 1/2 cups of flour (I do an even mix of white and whole wheat flour). Mix for about 4 or 5 minutes in the mixer with the bread hook, then put in a greased bowl to rise and cover for about an hour.

Punch it down and spread it on a baking stone (I put a bit of oil and cornmeal first) then add toppings:

• pizza sauce
• Italian chicken sausage
• red onion
• roasted red pepper
• mushrooms
• spinach
• any other available veggies (asparagus, artichokes, broccoli, etc.)
• mozzarella (my favorite is to get a ball of it -- someday I will learn to make this! -- and slice it in thin pieces and spread it all over.

Bake for about 20 minutes at 450 degrees.

Have a great week!

April 17 - 21

I'm so ready for it to be spring for real, but it just doesn't seem to be sticking. So as I'm sitting on my couch watching the wind whip around the bare branches in the yard, I'm thinking that a week full of grilling might not be the best plan. But deep down, that's what I want.

and so, instead...

Sunday

Pasta! I'm craving fat noodles (at least linguine, if not pappardelle). I'll make a sauce like this: Saute a chopped onion. Add some Italian turkey sausage, cook until browned and crumbly. Add some sliced mushrooms, garlic, a bit of red bell pepper, some canned tomato. Season as needed (salt, pepper, maybe some red pepper flakes for a bit of bite). Stir in a bit of pesto (ours is in ice-cube squares -- we make a bunch in the fall and then freeze baggies of the cubes) and some spinach leaves. Mix in the cooked pasta with a little bit of pasta water (the starchy water helps everything stick together) and let it cook down for a minute or so.

That's it.

Monday

This is one of my new favorite things, and I bought a bunch of sweet potatoes last week, so why not?

(The recipe is for spinach-stuffed baked potatoes, but I use sweet potatoes, just because orange food is fun.)

Spinach-Stuffed Potatoes

Tuesday

Okay, I have to let the grill have a little bit of action. Couldn't handle the thought of a whole week cooking on the stove...

Grilled salmon (there will probably be a bit of barbecue sauce on it, because that's been happening a lot lately)

Sauteed veggies (onion? mushrooms? red pepper? green beans?)

Rice pilaf

Wednesday

Fried rice with chicken and veggies:

I'm sure my fried rice method is far from authentic, and equally far from what happens at take-out places. But I like it:

Cut up a whole bunch of veggies (red onion, celery, carrot, bell pepper, mushroom, zucchini, maybe cabbage or some edamame). One ingredient at a time, saute them in a big pan. I start with the toughest veggies (onions, carrots, celery) and work my way to the most delicate. Get some tiny pieces of chicken in the saute at some point as well. When everything's cooked, add some pre-cooked brown rice, some soy sauce, some chile paste or Sriracha. Maybe a bit of rice wine vinegar for zip. Chopped green onions on top to garnish.

Thursday

Big old salad night! Woo hoo! With yummy toast for dipping, and maybe feta cheese and sunflower seeds in it.

April 10 - 14

Our menu is back on track! (We hope, anyway...) A few weeks of crazy nights, then broken internet, then vacation means I haven't visited this page in a while. But after a week in Florida eating tourist food (you know -- things that come with french fries and cole slaw), I'm ready for some actual cooking and actual veggies.

Sunday

It's gorgeous and around 80 degrees, and so we'll put the grill to work tonight.

Chicken kebabs (marinating chicken breast chunks in white balsamic vinegar, olive oil, sriracha, salt and pepper -- will skewer it up and grill it!)

Grilled veggies (we're making lots of extras, so we can put them on salads and things all week... baby portabella mushrooms, hunks of zucchini, giant sweet onions, grape tomatoes, red and yellow peppers, and lovely asparagus)

Bread

Monday

Big old salad topped with lots of leftover grilled veggies from last night. We'll also add some cannelini beans and parmesan. Balsamic vinegarette.

Tuesday

Bacon and Cabbage soup (from Irish Farmers' Market cookbook)

It's an Irish cookbook, so the measurements were in grams and ounces. I've listed the ounces in the recipe, but I'm figuring I'll just eyeball everything, like I usually do with soup anyway. Just keep adding good stuff until the pot is full!

2 oz butter

3 1/2 oz diced bacon

4 1/2 oz potatoes, peeled and diced (Karen's note: I don't peel potatoes. Just because.)

2 garlic cloves, crushed

3 1/2 oz onions

10 fl oz hot stock (chicken or vegetable)

10 oz chopped fresh tomatoes (though I'm thinking I'll use canned since it's December and fresh tomatoes taste like straw)

10 oz cabbage, shredded

salt and pepper

Melt butter, stir in bacon, potatoes, garlic and onions (can you imagine this smell?). Cook about 10 minutes on medium heat, covered.

Add stock and tomatoes, bring to a boil. Add cabbage, reduce heat and cook for about 5 minutes until veggies are tender. Season with salt and pepper and serve with gorgeous bread.

Wednesday

Barbecue Portobello quesadillas

Corn, black bean, red pepper, green and red onion salad

Thursday

Spinach salad with strawberries, grilled chicken, red onions, and blue cheese