-Salad -Grilled pork loin slabs marinated in a dijon mustard/banana pepper/honey sauce -Grilled spiced brussels sprouts -Pappardelle nests in a cream sauce flavored with the marinade I have never heard of pappardelle nests. I could have just used any pasta, but since the recipe called for them and I have never made them, I grabbed some at the store the other day: They look real pretty until they come out of the hot water. Then you kinda gotta play with them to make them look like nests again. Then you eat them and wonder why you bothered...
Yup. I grilled 4 slabs I cut off of a whole pork loin and made extra sprouts. They'll get frozen & vacuum-sealed for future meals. I think I do this because my mother always made home-cooked full meals, and I could not adjust to a diet of junk/fast food...and cooking is the only hobby I've consistently kept throughout my life. I'm always trying different stuff (homemade pasta, sous vide cooking.) Before COVID, I was a member of a church that had 2 affiliated sister churches...we shared a pastor and helped each other with our respective events (homecoming, holidays, stuff like that.) I really miss is cooking for those events. I've posted this before...it's a pic of bread I made when 5 of us hosted a full meal for 50 people: I also made Chicken Divan for the crowd.
Chicken Divan is delicious! I haven't made that in a loooong time. I use to make chicken cordon bleu pretty often, But I haven't made that in a while neither. I always made a variety of freezer meals too. It was/is great not to have to "fix" a meal on those busy days. We called grabbing food from the freezer our "fast food" I still freeze meals and left overs, but not as much a variety as I use to.
I got in the "make-ahead" habit when attending college at night after work. Back then the meals were a little simpler (poor man's lasagna made with burger, spinach, cottage cheese, egg noodles and cheddar cheese) and bagged with a Dazey Seal-a-Meal. I went through a stretch where I made full fresh meals every night, and I've circled back to make-ahead batch cooking. My Chicken Divan story: when I made it for that large church gathering, a friend came up to me (smiling) and said "I shouldn't tell you this, but some people were complaining because it had broccoli in it." I was shocked! I grew up in a family of 6 kids. You either ate what was put in front of you or you didn't eat. "Dislikes" were not permitted. And here I am in a rural area with folks who certainly grew up nearer-to-dirt-poor than I did, and they were plucking broccoli out of a casserole and shoving it to the side of their plates as so many GW Bushes.
I have pulled out the hamburger, lasagna noodles, cheese... Have to make the sauce. Wish I had some Italian sausage.
I always thought that Being Picky and Being Country were mutually exclusive. And if you have some pork chops or the like in the freezer, braise them with Italian spices, mince it and put it in the lasagna. That'll be even better than Italian sausage.
Quesadillas using leftover grilled steak, onions, peppers, cheese on freshly made tortillas. Ranch beans and salad on the side. Beer!!
Today my hubby is spending the evening with his mom and they are having dinner so I'm on my own. I decided to try another tortilla recipe and made a couple of Tex-Mex style flour tortillas that I slathered with butter. These were made with milk and oil, and I liked them much better than the more 'authentic' ones made with water and shortening or lard.