Week Eight

This week I helped my mom some at my grandparent's house; i miss them so much.


Monday-Linguine stir-fry. This is a spicy twist on a stir-fry that my mom always made. It has chicken, peppers, mushrooms, and snow peas that are cooked and added to linguine. We like to add a generous handful of red pepper flakes. What i think is worth noting about the recipe, for those wanting to take away a good strategy, is the use of cornstarch in the marinade. The marinade is a combination of sherry, soy sauce, and corn starch. The flavor is really nice from the sherry and soy sauce but the corn starch makes it a really nice thick sauce that actually coats the pasta and vegetables. I really enjoy that part.

Tuesday-Enchiladas. Yum. Need i say more. Sadly, they were only yum on that day and since then just the thought of them makes me quite ill. However, that night they didn't. The inside of the enchiladas had chicken, corn (fresh from this past summer, so good), black beans, green chilies, cheese, and some spices. The shells were filled and then doused in enchilada sauce, cheese and sour cream, with a few olives on top also. They were tasty but i do think they could have had more...flavor maybe. Or even some sour cream on the inside to make them a little creamier maybe. Something wasn't quite right and I think they could use some tweaking. Any ideas?

Wednesday-So begins the left over brigade. As you may notice we now have had a number of meals in a row and the fridge is exploding with food. We had to do TWO nights of leftovers to try and take care of that problem.

Friday-Mushrooms, feta, roasted red pepper, fresh tomato, and canadian bacon....a pizza from American Dream. It was amazing.

Saturday-Left over pizza of course!

Sunday-While lying in bed I decided that it would be nice to have a simple Sunday dinner this week. I am feeling pretty worn out. How about JUST soup, salad, and bread. No big deal. Next time I want a simple meal it will not be soup, salad, and bread. SO MUCH CHOPPING! I made a new soup, "Hearty Minestrone" from my cooks illustrated cookbook. Lucas loved it but I wasn't crazy about it. Lucas loved it for some key ingredients that just happen to also be ingredients that I am generally not that excited about eating in soup: zucchini and cabbage. It also had the regular carrot, celery, onion trifold. That part was nice. It also had white beans, which I love. Ultimately what I believe is most worth noting is that the soup called for V8 juice. The book explains how that gives it a more consistent tomato flavor and I would agree. In fact, next time I would add more. I really liked it and importantly, so did Lucas who cannot stand V8 juice. It has inspired me to think about using V8 in other dishes where I want to enhance a tomato flavor. Good idea!