Week Eleven

Sunday: We were finally able to celebrate Lucas's birthday! It was quite the feast. In celebration of Palm Sunday we had salmon. Those who ate it (everyone but me) found it to be quite delicious. We baked it with just some seasoning and lemon but everyone seemed pleased. I made tartar sauce, for Lucas, even though that is not an appropriate salmon topping. We also had rice, asparagus, and pineapple. Both the pineapple and asparagus we bought at Costco and were very good. I don't particularly like buying produce in such a bulky, not local kind of way, but sometimes the price is very hard to beat.

Monday: In a rush to get out the door I ate a can of veggie chili and cooked broccoli. Not an overly impressive meal, however, I must give a plug for Nalley's Vegetarian Chili which we happen to love. It is really the only canned chili that I like to eat, and the only one that doesn't make me feel sick. We really enjoy it. Lucas often has it for lunch at work.

Tuesday: Sadly, due to my extensive stay at the OSU Vet hospital, I missed Tuesday's dinner. Lucas cooked up a Moosewood recipe of black eyed peas and spinach. Both he and Charlotte found it to be quite delightful and highly recommend it. It is on page 166 in your Moosewood. Check it out!

Wednesday: Moosewood Hawaiian Skillet. This recipe was a mix. Again, Lucas enjoyed it more than I did due to my recent aversion to beans, but I also think I would have enjoyed it more with better flavor. It had really great ingredients, including hoisin sauce (yum), pineapple, sesame oil, and many others. In the end, Lucas and I believe it needed more hoisin and less pineapple. We ate it with the recommended cole slaw that was also a salty, sweet mixture-that was excellent. I highly recommend it as a visit away from your classic slaw. All in all, it was a good meal and I think with some improvements it could be a great meal.

~~~~~ At this point, we transitioned into full church mood in preparation for Pascha. This meant 5 days of left overs and scraping up whatever we could. The only night worth noting was Saturday. I have been working on what I am calling my "quick marinara." Meaning, cooks in under 20 minutes. I have been using canned tomatoes, a quick saute of garlic and onion, basil, sugar, red pepper flakes, and salt. I try and cook some of the liquid out, but not so much that it dries and it is really becoming delicious. I would like to experiment with using it as a topping on some meat and veggie dishes.

Following this week, technically week 12, was bright week. The return of meat to our lives : "looks like meat is back on the menu boys!" (name that movie!) Has meant a collection of meat cookouts. I am ready for vegetable spaghetti sauce. They were all tasty but none really interesting enough to post about. However, what is worth posting about is the cookies I made.

Sugar cookies: For those who eat gluten, I highly recommend this recipe. It is from a cookie recipe book that I have and I love it. I am not a traditional sugar cookie fan, at all actually. But this one is great. Sarah, as a non chocolate girl, this might be the one for you! I am putting the recipe here because I strongly encourage trying it out. We decorated the cookies with blue frosting and green sprinkles in honor of Earth Week. You might try that too, they look super great!

           4 cups flour
           1 teaspoon baking powder
           1/2 teaspoon salt
           1 cup salted butter
           2 cups sugar
           2 large eggs
           2 teaspoons vanilla

For the frosting I do a simple cream cheese frosting. A little milk, a little cream cheese, vanilla and powdered sugar. Just remember to keep the liquid low so that you don't have to use the whole bag of powdered sugar. I hate it when I do that!

We used our elephant, dragon fly, and airplane cut outs and they looked great!!!