Menu Planning

it is that time in the month, grocery shopping day!  I have conflicted feelings about grocery shopping.  On the one hand, it is time consuming and expensive.  On the other hand, I get to wander the shelves and look at new products, sometimes I even get to taste a few things. Sometimes there is even wine to sample!  My solution to the conflict has been to shop twice a month and spend most of a day on the task. Today is my day devoted to grocery shopping.

I spent last evening and this morning deciding on my menus. This morning, I completed my grocery shopping list.  I have my grocery shopping list on a spreadsheet.  I get teased about this list by my friends and colleagues, but it works for me. I've looked at a few grocery shopping apps, but haven't figured out a way to make them work for me. 

The middle of September marks a transition from what I think of as summer foods to fall/winter foods.  In May, I stop making soups, stews and casseroles for the most part.  It just is too darn hot.  My family prefers not to eat those things as they are too heavy for our summer weather.  I am always sad, most of those dishes are good for dinner for two days.  This means I have to prepare something new almost every day.  I love the fall!  Soups, stews and casseroles can be made one day and eaten for two days!  I have half the meal prep! If you are interested in my plan for the rest of this month, you can view the schedule below.

Cheese & Crackers
Symphony Day - eat out
Sausage with grilled corn and black bean
Grilled veggies
Sausage, spinach and green bean salad
Grilled corn soup
Paninis with vegetables
Rib-eye steak with tomato salad and grilled bread
Pork chops and Cotija corn puree with radish, cucumber and lime salad
Chicken soup with rice
Sloppy Joe baked potatoes and salad
Gnocchi with summer squash, basil and feta
Pulled pork with beans and chips

Birthday for Sarah 8/11

Tomorrow is Sarah's 25th birthday. She's an avid Dr. Who fan. Alexis decided that would be a good party theme. Look below for her tablescape.

Sarah's Birthday Dinner Menu
Slow Cooked BBQ Pork Ribs
Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
Salad
Dr. Who Cupcakes
Norton Barrel Select Malbec 2010

We are making extra so she has some to take home.

Quinoa, Vegetables and Pork

It has been a while since I have posted.  I thought I might strive for  a little more consistency.

I shop for two sometimes 3 weeks at a time.  I am currently at the end of the second week of my grocery cycle.  At this point in the cycle, I am doing deep freezer driving and am resorting to frozen vegetables and cleaning up the extra veggies in the refrigerator.  Today's menu was a tweak of one I found in the Dash magazine that comes monthly in the Austin American Statesman.  It is made with quinoa.  Pronounced keen-wah this grain is gluten free and high in protein.  Jim says this dish is a keeper.

Quinoa, Vegetable and Pork Pilaf

1.75 c reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 c quinoa, rinsed and drained
3 T olive oil
2 t minced garlic
1 c diced orange bell pepper
1 c diced red bell pepper
1 c chopped asparagus (I used a 12 oz bag of frozen asparagus spears, which I defrosted.)
1 c diced zucchini (I used all the zucchini in another recipe.  I substituted 2 bunches of scallions (white and green portions) sliced)
salt to taste
pepper to taste
Juice of one lemon or more to taste
1/2 c crumbled feta
2 c  cooked pork, cubed

1. In a saucepan, bring broth to a boil.  Add quinoa, cover and reduce heat to a simmer.  Cook until quinoa is tender, about 15 minutes.  Remove from heat; fluff with fork.

2.  While quinoa cooks, heat oil in a large skillet over medium.  Add garlic, peppers, asparagus, and zucchini. Season with salt and pepper.  Saute until tender, 7 to 8 minutes.  Add the cooked pork, continue to saute until pork is warmed.  Add cooked quinoa, lemon juice, and feta.  Add more salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.

Okay at this point the recipe says to spoon it into serving bowl.  People this is a weeknight!  Just serve it from the frying pan!  Why dirty extra dishes?

Happy eating!

Dinner and Family

It has been some time since I have taken the time to blog.  Today we are at Andy and Theresa's house (Jim's brother and his wife).  We came to do a little work to help them after they had some water damage.  Here's the menu they offered us today.

NY strip steaks
Twice baked potato salad with bacon
Veggie tray
Fruit tray

Andy does seem to be a grill master. I am so full I feel like I could roll back to Georgetown.  I am enjoying watching Diners, Drive-ins and Dives with Theresa. I am also enjoying listening to the menfolk play cards.  Not as much smack talking as when all 3 brothers are together, but amusing none-the-less.

I bought a nice Tempranillo to go with the steaks.  It was a 2001 vintage.  Here's a picture of the label. Surprisingly, it was less than $8.00 per bottle. 

It has been a great day.

Summer Berries

I love summer berries! Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries!  Summer sun ripened berries need only the barest sprinkle or sugar or drizzle of liquor to make them a perfect summer dessert.

Summer Berries
1/2 pint blackberries
1/2 pint raspberries
1/2 pint blueberries
1/2 pint strawberries quartered
2  Tb Gran Marnier or other orange liquor

Great Salad

On a warm summer evening, I think salads for dinner are very refreshing. Last evening I had Grilled Endive Salad.  I think it is a recipe I can make at home.

Here's my recipe for 4 people.

2 cups baby arugula
1 package bacon bits or 4 slices bacon crisply cooked and broken into bits
1/2 c walnuts, broken into large pieces
1/4 c candied pecans
1 Granny Smith apple, unpeeled and finely chopped
1/2 c blue cheese crumbles
4 heads endive
Balsamic vinaigrette

Preheat the grill and clean if necessary.

Divide the arugula, bacon bits, walnuts, candied pecans, Granny Smith apple, and blue cheese evenly among 4 plates.

Cut the endive into quarters and brush with olive oil.  Place them cut side down on a hot grill.  Grill until endive is slightly soft and has nice grill marks. Remove the endive from the grill.  Arrange 4 endive piece atop each salad. Serve immediately along with your favorite balsamic vinaigrette.

Dinners in a Stressful Week

For this past week, planning ahead paid off.  Our annual Beat the Heat conference was Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  To finish up presentations, web posting and other tasks, I worked at home a couple of evenings.  Based on previous years, I knew total exhaustion and cooking antipathy would set in by Tuesday afternoon. They both arrived on schedule.  With my weekly schedule in place, I was able to get dinner on the table with a minimum of effort on my part.
Here was the menu for last week.

Monday - Chicken Pot Pie (made with the leftover chicken fajitas)
Tuesday - Grilled pork chops with roasted asparagus , salad and baked potatoes
Wednesday - Crockpot 3 bean soup
Thursday - Leftover 3 bean soup
Friday - Cheese, veggies, crackers AND a very large glass of wine

Sunday Dinner

Once the hustle and bustle of the weekend draws to a close, we have Sunday dinner. Tonight we had chicken fajitas again.  They are easy and all the extras are easy to prep. Since I've written about chicken fajitas recently, I am writing about cheap wine. 

I once read an article about a wine maker, whose philosophy was to produce a good, quality wine at a price a person could afford to drink every evening with dinner. This is an idea I can get behind.  Currently one of my favorites is Rex-Goliath.  Tonight we are having the Rex-Goliath Shiraz.  The description on the back of the bottle says it is peppery and plummy.  This is a description I can understand.  I thought it held its own with our meal.

My father-in-law always remarks on this wine producer's label.  As you can see it is a drawing of a large rooster.  He says: "That sure is a big rooster!"  According to the legend on the back, HRM (His Royal Majesty) Rex Goliath was a treasured circus attraction.  He was billed as the "World's Largest Rooster." This wine maker equates their wines to the rooster's larger than life personality.  All I can say is that for less than $7/bottle it this Shiraz is a rich, tasty wine.

As Julia Child would say, "Bon appetit!"

Primo Leftovers

I don't know whether it was good planning or just sheer good luck, but today I used primo leftovers to make a very delicious salad. We had grilled chicken thighs in the freezer.  These were the marinated HEB chicken fajitas so they were full of garlic and other good spices.  We had blue cheese left over from Friday's cheese and crackers.  And finally I had some pecan pieces in the freezer. 

I made my version of Waterloo Ice House's Texas Pecan Chicken Salad

Texas Pecan Chicken Salad - Serves 4

2 c cooked chopped cooked chicken
1/2 c blue cheese crumbles
1 Granny Smith apple, roughly chopped
1/2 c toasted pecans
6-8 cups spring mix, baby spinach or baby spinach/arugula blend (or a combination of these)
Raspberry or other fruit vinaigrette

Divide the spring mix evenly between four plates.  Divide the remaining ingredients between the four plates.  Serve with the vinaigrette. 

Serve this with a nice crusty bread. This makes a cool summer dinner.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all fathers everywhere!

In our family on special occasions we prefer to eat at home.  When asked, Jim wanted Rib Eye steaks for dinner.  He and Sarah went to the liquor store yesterday and bought what they thought was the perfect wine to go with dinner. We ate well!

Menu
Rib Eye Steak
Salad
Roasted Potatoes

Wine
Cimes de Lartigue 2005 (See image of label attached to this entry)
85 points
Jim was just reading the notes on the wine.  We aren't sure what this taster meant by this review.

"This wine is a blend of 70% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, aged in seasoned oak barrels.  To the eye a deep purple color.  To the nose, there is a sweet cherry fruit with notes of dusty gravel and tobacco.  The sweet fruit lasts on the palate through the medium length finish."  Alain Harvey on 4/19/2013.

Okay, we have determined that it does not smell or taste like a dusty road.  Maybe the taster just wanted to say earthy?  To us it was rich, dark and delicious! Do we have a discriminating palate?  Who knows?

Recipe: Roasted Potatoes
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2# small red potatoes (or fingerlings)
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 T fresh rosemary, finely chopped
Salt & pepper to taste
Olive Olive

1.  Cut potatoes in half or quarters, depending on the size.  Place in a casserole pan.
2.  Sprinkle the potatoes with the chopped garlic, fresh rosemary, salt and pepper.
3.  Drizzle with olive and mix
4.  Place in preheated oven and roast 45 minutes - 1 hour.  You might want to mix the potatoes once or twice during the baking process. The potatoes should be nicely browned on the outside and a fork should pass through them easily.

Summer Tomatoes

There is nothing better than summer tomatoes.  I had a few tomatoes from my garden and a colleague gave me some  home grown ones as well.  I made my favorite summer tomato recipe. This recipe is really only good in the summer when you have a garden, access to a friend who does have a garden and is growing tomatoes or a farmers market.  Store bought tomatoes just won't do.

Marinated Tomatoes
3-4 pints of summer tomatoes
3-4 cloves of garlic. pressed or finely minced
1/2 lb Monterrey Jack, cut into small pieces
1/4 c julienned fresh basil
Salt & Pepper to taste
1/4 c olive oil
1 # pasta of choice, I like farfalle (bow tie)
Grated Parmesan cheese

In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients except the pasta.  Let this mixture marinate for an hour, if you can.  The olive oil and the acid from the tomatoes make a very nice, mild vinaigrette.  After your ingredients have marinated for an hour, cook the pasta according to the package directions.  Drain the pasta and add it to the bowl.  Mix gently.  The warm pasta will gently melt the Monterrey Jack cheese.  Serve immediately with grated parmesan cheese and a good crusty bread.

I served this with Campo Viejo Temparanillo as recommended by my wine guy, Steve at the local HEB. It was most excellent.

I shopped today and berries were on sale.  I find it very hard to resist good berries.  Tonight we had blackberry and raspberry cobbler with Bluebell homemade vanilla ice cream.

We had good food and live is worth living! 

Sarah is home.  We are glad to see her.  She and Jim decided that the movie that would be best after dinner is A Good Year. After all the theory is that good food and good wine make a good year.  We'll see.

Friday Dinner

Who wants to cook on Friday night?  I don't. If I get home and have a glass of wine before dinner, we might be calling out for pizza.  All my enthusiasm for cooking goes out the window by Friday evening. I think Friday night dinner should take 30 minutes or less to fix and have practically no dishes to clean up.

Tonight we are dining on our elegant Chinet plates! Everyone volunteers to wash dishes when we use these!

We had my favorite dinner: cheese, crackers and vegetables.  My father-in-law, Dick is fond of blue cheese so I got a new one to try.  It is called Moody Blue.  It was mild and creamy.  Here's the menu.

Wine
Mounton Cadet Bordeaux 2010

Cheese
Moody Blue
Ile de France Brie
Goat cheese with herbs
Hard Salami Panino
Asiago with Rosemary & Olive Oil
Manchego

Veggies and other
Black olive humus
Carrots
Cherry tomatoes
Sugar snap peas
Kalamata olives

Crackers
Sundried tomato & basil crackers
Pumpkin seed cheese crackers
Black olive & feta pita crackers

Color in Dining

Home again, home again!  I did get home in time for the Green Chili Cheeseburgers!  I stopped by the store and picked up some blue corn tortilla chips. Tonight you might say we ate green and blue.  

On Memorial Day we made enough Green Chili Cheeseburgers for a crowd.  We froze the ones we didn't need.  They were supposed to make a quick dinner for tonight.  Jim forgot to defrost them so we ate a little later.  Good thing, because I was able to be home for dinner.

While I think they may need a little tweaking, here's our recipe.

Jim & Robin's Green Chili Cheeseburgers
1lb. hamburger
.5 lb ground pork
2-3 poblano peppers, roasted, skinned and chopped
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons each garlic powder and onion powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Dining in Colors

The last three nights I have been dining in colors.  With my colleagues, I have been to the Red Onion Cafe.  With my daughter, I visited Blu. Both of those restaurants had tasty food.  Last night, I tried  the Roasted Poblano Soup at the Red Onion Cafe.  It was creamy and spicy.  I may have to find a recipe and try it at home this fall.

What is it about traveling that makes you think of food?  When is lunch?  Where are we going for dinner?  When I am on my regular schedule, I don't think about dinner until I get home.

Speaking of home, I may possibly get home in time for dinner.  Tonight's menu at home features Green Chili Cheeseburgers! 

Away from Home

So today, I am away from home.  When I am out, I enjoy thinking about what to eat.  Tonight it was Carne Guisada.  Here's my little thought about this dinner.

Carne Guisada

Slow simmered beef, rich gravy

Good food with good friends!

We ate at the Red Onion Cafe in Houston.  I think I will still be full at breakfast.  I do have to mention that someone at our table ordered the Chocolate Empañada.  It was a toothsome mouthful. Honestly, one was all I ate!  Fried pie crust filled with chocolate and pecans.  Served with ice cream. That one bite was heavenly!

A Beginning

I was reading an article about Writing 2.0 and encouraging student writing production through blogging. While I've blogged for work, I often wondered what it would be like to blog for myself. Would it be good practice for moving into the technological age? Yes, it might.

The decision to blog being made, finding a suitable topic was the next step. I realized that I have something of a philosophy getting weeknight dinner to the table in a timely way.  I also think about eating good food and drinking good wine. Thus my new blog Dinner Thoughts.

I searched for a good theme and came upon this library backdrop.  I would have an entire library of cookbooks, if I had a place to store them.  Would I ever use them?  Who knows, but it is fun to think about collecting them.

So to food, to drink, to life, to write!
Robin