What's For Dinner...what are you cooking?

I'm in trouble.  I've started working out at the gym again.  Thus, I've started watching the Food Network again. The children should know what that means...I will be experimenting with FOOD.
They will suffer.   Because I like experimenting with FOOD.

Friday:  We're doing blueberry waffles and bacon for dinner.   It's festive, warm, filling and perfect for a Friday night when we're planning on watching SHERLOCK: The Abominable Bride.  Yes, I've already seen it.  I will watch it again, so I can catch some of the very sly humor laced in this episode.  Enjoy.

Saturday: Marc loves to make baked ziti with sausage.  So we're having baked ziti with sausage.  

Sunday:  On Saturday, I defrosted two briskets which I trimmed of some of the fat, scored and then coated with brown sugar, salt, white pepper, black pepper and kosher salt.   (1 cup, 2 tablespoons 1 tablespoon, 2 tablespoons, 3 table spoons).   They sat overnight in a plate, sealed in a ziplock.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put meat in a foil tray, let cook for one hour.

Take brisket out.  Drop temperature to 300.

In the tray, make a bed for the brisket.  (Long carrots and celery laid on the bottom of a foil tray).   I placed the meat on top of the tray and then put 1 bottle of brown ale and two cups of chicken stock or one coca-cola and two cups of chicken stock or two cups of coffee and two cups of chicken stock in the bottom of the tray. (Bottom line, 4 cups of liquid on the bottom of the tray so the meat will get steamed in it, without soaking in it).  

Cover the tray with foil.

Let it cook for three hours. Take out, let sit for 15 minutes.  Cut against the grain.  
Save 2 cups of liquid, mix with your favorite bbq sauce in a sauce pan.  Serve and stand back.

Monday:  Pasta Night with Meatballs.

Tuesday:  Caesar Chicken Breasts  

Preheat oven to 350.

Foil tray.  Pat dry chicken. (Skin on).  Place chicken breasts on a tray.  Salt. Pepper.  Pulse in a mixer or food processor, one tin of Anchovies, the juice of a lemon, five garlic cloves, three tablespoons of mayo, salt, pepper, chopped parsley, and olive oil (1/4).   Paint chicken skin with a homemade Caesar.   Salt and pepper again.   Cover with foil.  Put in oven, forget about for an hour. Take foil off, let crisp at broil for 5 minutes.  

Grate Parmesan cheese over the chicken while it's still hot.  

Toss a salad of greens with a Caesar or oil and vinegar.  Place chicken on top.  Serve with fresh bread.

Wednesday:  Pork tenderloin tortilla wraps.  
Marinate pork tenderloins in oj/soy garlic olive oil marinade for 1 hour before cooking.  While waiting for it to get tender, make the yellow rice, black beans, cucumber salad and guacamole.
Sliver the tomatoes, peppers and onions.
Saute tomatoes, bell pepper and onions in oil until soft, carmelized yummy mess.

Broil the tenderloins 5 minutes, turn, 5 minutes, turn, 5 minutes turn, 5 minutes.
Let rest for ten minutes while you prep the meals.
Wrap tortillas in foil.  Place in tortillas in already warm oven, turn it to 350 to let them get prepped.
On each plate place rice, beans on top, and then guacamole on the side.  No chips on the plate, they'll eat them too fast.  Put the chips in baskets in the middle.   Shred the meat.  Serve on tortillas with the sauteed vegetable yumminess.   No leftovers. No one upset.  Very festive, very happy food time for all.

I do have some squash, I'm going to broil vegetables this week, and serve them.  I also plan to toss in some kale somewhere, so if the kids are reading this....be afraid.  Be very afraid.

What's For Supper?

We do Christmas.  We do food.  I've done the math and when all twelve are at home, there are 252 meals served on any given week.  There are days this is not hard...bagels, oj and bacon.....hot dogs, french fries and carrots and cucumbers...and dinner...pasta, salad, meatballs, sauce.   And, there are days, it's not so easy.

Every New Year's, we toast the old and welcome the new with a steak and lobster tradition, token vegetables like broccoli and asparagus, and desserts, lots of desserts.   After fixing steak and lobster, I'm needing down time from the kitchen.  Today is feast of The Solemnity of Mary and we made it to the ten o'clock.   All twelve at the ten o'clock on time.  I'm thinking, not bad.  Pretty good way to start the new year.

Monsignor Brennan came over to me and asked, "How's your french?"  The answer?  Bad.  As in, it wasn't good when it was fresh and new either.  Never got beyond a B- after my first year and I think Sr. Emily took pity on me with that B.

I knew I was hearing the Our Father.

Upshot of all this?  My eight year old asked, "Can we have French Toast?"
Oui.   The thing about french toast in my house, I can use 12 eggs, a quart of milk and two loaves of bread.  It's never quite enough.

However, they loved it, and no leftovers.  No crumbs even.

As for the rest of the week, let's eat! MEMO: No special diets. If you want a special diet at our house, you can make your own if you clean up.  Ergo, No special diets.

Friday: Hamburgers and french fries, carrots, salad.
Saturday: Double Baked Chickens, potatoes, green beans
Sunday: Roasted Pork, salad, crescent rolls, roasted veggies.
Monday:  Pasta, red sauce, salad
Tuesday: Hot Dogs, beans, corn, cucumber salad
Wednesday: sausages, potatoes, green beans, sauteed onions, peppers.
Thursday: Pasta, meatballs, sauce, salad.

Small Success Thursday/What's For Dinner/Will She EVER blog again?

1. It's been a while, because I'm trying to restart in that boot camp, but having these sort of weekly memes keeps me from slacking, so I've returned, but I've also combined the three. Muhahhahahahahaha...

  

   2.

It's Saturday...and I'm only just getting around to posting a link to Small Success Thursday. One could call that a very small success or a rather big failure on my part, but I'm going to say, go, it's never too late to count your blessings. :)


3. What's for Supper Simcha Fisher?

A heaping feast of humble pie.  I'd planned to make it last week.  It took me until this week to make lamb stew, but it was GOOD.  Plus, I had fun walking into the liquor store to buy one can of Guinness with a four year old dressed in her Harley Quinn Costume.  

Anyway, the stew itself is simple and won a few converts.  (John on up liked it, Rita on down did not).  It splits right where I would have predicted.  But hey, that's what chicken nuggets were invented for, to eliminate the hassle of "I don't like dinner" when dinner is something unusual.  That, and cold cereal.

But planning out the menu for the upcoming week does make life easier.
I will try to at some point, be artsy enough to take a photo of food we eat.  But that didn't happen this week.

Dinner Saturday: Beef Stew....why?  Because it's raining, so it just fits.  Everyone who objects gets leftovers.

Dinner Sunday:  Pork Tenderloin, roasted potatoes, green beans and salad. Dessert. (We always have dessert for Sunday night, it's a good way to make sure everyone stays at the table, pumpkin pie, a nearly universal favorite. The two mavericks get ice cream).

Dinner Monday:  Life gets evil, as basketball season has started and Faith has practice Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, while John has practice Tuesday. CCD is on Tuesday, but not at the same time as Basketball.  Go figure.   So dinner will need to be pre-planned to prevent nervous breakdowns, dinner at 9 in the evening and dinners that come out of a microwave.   On the plus side, field hockey and x-country have ended, so the teens will be coming home on the bus.   (Cue happy dance).  

Dinner Monday?  Lasagna. (I'm not a martyr, it's Stoffer's, but it will mean dinner gets prebaked, and no worries).  

Dinner Tuesday?  Baked Chicken and french fries, mixed veggies and salad.  Again, I cook the chicken during the day so we reheat and go...

Dinner Wednesday?  Pork chops, broccoli...(which my kids like),

carrots, potato wedges.  This one is not as tricky as it seems.  I season the chops with soy sauce and strawberry jam, cooking oil and kosher salt.  I broil.   So it's fast, and the potato wedges I make in advance.  

Dinner Thursday?  Pasta, meatballs, sauce cooked all day in a crock pot.

Dinner Friday?  I'm thinking, pot roast if we get one, otherwise, it will be a waffle and bacon night.

4.  What am I reading?   Well, there are four books currently in the reading rotation.

Regina: Black Beauty.  
Rita: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  (It was nice to revisit Hogwarts with two sets of new eyes. Rita and Regina are loving it).
John:  The Prince and the Pauper.  After so many awful (and I do mean awful) cartoon versions of this Mark Twain novel, I thought it time to rediscover the real thing. We're enjoying it.
Me:  (I'd read to Faith, Peter and Marta if they let me).   I'm reading Pope Benedict's The Doctors of the Church, which is a very good, very readable book, introducing me to all 35 of those proclaimed to be so named.   I read a doctor at a time, so as to not be overwhelmed.

5,  What else is going on?
In other sports news...
Rita and Regina are signed up for Girls on the Run.  It's a 5K and Faith and I will be their partners.  So I'm hitting the gym so I can keep up with my 8 year old.  

Peter is running in the Baltimore Celtic Solstice 5 mile on December 19th.  He'll be joining his uncle and aunt --who ran in the NYC marathon and PR'd at just 4 hours and 58 minutes, and his cousins. All but the 5 year old are running.

6.  Come on, there's more...
There is...Marta is finishing up applications for college.  Faith is doing prep work for Confirmation and looking at high schools.   Paul is talking a bit more.  As his sister Anna said, "He's not using Down Syndrome words."  And Anna is reading.  She's not yet five. It's cool to watch.

7.  I'm working on writing one thousand words a day, so I don't have much left for blogging, hence the condensing of three internet list memes into one.  I don't have anything more to report except, I dressed up this Halloween as Helen.   My husband took a picture.

Here: