My favorite spaghetti dish. 7/6/19

Posted on July 7, 2019 by Beebamom

Since it is a long weekend I decided to make up a new batch of spaghetti sauce flavored with ground beef. John bought enough ground beef for us to have a hamburger meal plus at least four pasta dishes.

Starting my pasta sauce is seasoned ground beef browned in olive oil. After taking the beef out of the pan I saute the onions, dried oregano, garlic, chile flakes, and tomato paste and deglaze the pan with red wine. Then I add the ground beef back in along with a large can of San Marzano tomatoes, a regular sized can of tomato sauce and and one of petite chopped tomatoes and some fresh tomatoes that I have peeled. It all cooks for an hour or so and then it is ready to top our whole grain spaghetti.

A couple of hints: season everything along the way and use more oregano than you think you should. (I accidentally dumped too much in once and the sauce came out great!)

Meat sauce and some of its ingredients

After John put the al dente pasta in a colander I quickly grabbed the pasta pot and added a couple of cups worth of the spaghetti sauce. He put the drained spaghetti into this pot and  Icooked the sauce and the pasta together adding a bit of the reserved pasta water.

We cooked 8 ounces of spaghetti and it was enough for John, me, and our daughter for dinner. The sauce was really good plus I have 3 additional containers in the freezer for future dinners.

Whole grain spaghetti with a meaty tomato sauce

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Grilled chicken thighs with watermelon and tomato salad. 7/5/19

Posted on July 6, 2019 by Beebamom

According to my menu we are supposed to be having a frittata tonight. John says he does not want to heat up the kitchen by turning on the oven so we need to come up with an alternate plan.

The other night when we made Chicken Marsala we defrosted too much chicken. We have three boneless chicken thighs that need to be used so we decide on grilling them with some BBQ sauce. In the refrigerator is also the rest of the watermelon from last Saturday’s family cookout. I mix that with a piece of cucumber, some tomatoes from the garden, sliced red onion, and feta cheese. It was a great salad dressed with some good olive oil and white wine vinegar.

Sometimes you just need to look through your refrigerator and use a little creativity to come up with a winning dinner!

Grilled chicken thighs with watermelon and tomato salad

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Comfort food. 7/4/19

Posted on July 5, 2019 by Beebamom

Just remembered I forgot to post yesterday’s dinner! I even considered not posting it at all since I feel somewhat guilty for giving into making a comfort food dinner. When we had finished dinner I did not feel comforted only bad.

I just found out that when I fell in April I tore my rotator cuff, you know that set of tendons that holds your shoulder together. It usually happens to athletes not some old lady poking around 12th century churches. Anyway now I have to figure out if I am going to have surgery or just settle for some pain and limited mobility. I will never play tennis again. So I am sad. And when I am sad I eat the wrong things. Ergo, my meatloaf dinner with too many tater tots and spinach soufflé.

Homemade meatloaf with too many tater tots and Stouffer’s spinach soufflé

Hopefully I will get back on the right track tomorrow.

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Chicken Marsala with mashed potatoes and asparagus. 7/3/19

Posted on July 4, 2019 by Beebamom

We have a habit of having a glass of wine and an hors d’oeuvre before dinner. It seems a nice civilized routine. Wednesday’s offering was crackers with a smear of butter and a slice of radish. I don’t know that I will make this again but it was interesting.

Radish canapes

For the main event we made chicken Marsala with mashed potato and asparagus. John floured and sauteed the chicken thighs after pounding them into a thinner profile. He also made the Marsala sauce with the mushrooms and shallot I chopped up.  I was in charge of the potato (it only took one potato to make mashed potatoes for both of us!) and the asparagus. I should have cooked the asparagus a little longer but the rest of the dinner was ready so they ended up a little crunchy on the stalk end.

Chicken Marsala with mashed potato and asparagus

It was nice to have a different chicken dinner. Next time we make this we need to make a lot more of the sauce and also make it a little thicker. All in all we made a dinner that came together quickly, was pretty tasty, and also felt elegant for a Wednesday night.

 

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Seared scallops with snow peas and new potatoes. 7/2/19

Posted on July 3, 2019 by Beebamom

Of all the proteins scallops are my favorite. Sweet and succulent they make any dinner feel special. John did a great job cooking them in our cast iron frying pan. He made sure it was really hot before he put them in. Then a couple of minutes on one side and even less on the other and they are done. Talk about fast food!

For my part I steamed some small red potatoes and when they were about done I put the snow peas in on top for a couple of minutes. They were warmed through but still crisp. To go with the scallops I whipped up a little tartar sauce. It’s great on the potatoes too!

Make an ordinary day special with seared scallops, snow peas, and small potatoes

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Eggplant Parmesan. 7/1/19

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Beebamom

John and I went to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients for eggplant parmesan but the eggplant was so sad looking that we decided on a frozen entree instead. We like the Michel Angelo’s eggplant parm and it is certainly easy to make – 18 minutes in the microwave. I made an accompanying mixed green salad with some home-grown cherry tomatoes.

Eggplant parmesan with salad

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Weekly Menu. 7/1 – 7/6/19

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Beebamom

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Christmas in June cookout! 6/29/19

Posted on June 30, 2019 by Beebamom

Since we were off in Italy over Christmas with our adult children, we never had a chance to celebrate with the grandkids. We had this situation arise once before and found that having Christmas around the Summer Solstice was an excellent time to get the family together for some presents and a cookout!

In keeping with the theme I put our Christmas wreath on the door and decorated the back patio a bit and of course had a tree representation with presents nearby.

Christmas decorations

Presents and a faux tree

Once the present opening was done we started in on the Christmas cookout food – hamburgers, bratwurst, a big summer fruit salad, potato salad, and roasted golden beets and blood orange slices with arugula and feta cheese. Later we had some ice cream with our daughter’s intensely strawberry sauce made from wild strawberries in her garden.

Bratwurst and sauerkraut, potatoes salad, good oranges and golden beets

If it were up to me I think the end of June is a fine time for Christmas. The weather is great and the kids haven’t had a bunch of presents for 6 months!

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Chicken thighs, potato salad, cole slaw

Posted on June 29, 2019 by Beebamom

Chicken thighs, potato sauce, cole slaw

In case you are thinking I went to the grocery store and just bought all this stuff, I did not. We made everything from scratch and it really came together pretty fast. John cooked the chicken in the oven and at the end crisped it under the broiler. I put BBQ sauce on mine afterward.

My part was to make the potato salad and cole slaw. Since I am making German potato salad for our family cookout on Saturday I wanted to see if I could make it with russet potatoes instead since I like them better. The answer is no. They turn into mashed potatoes with a minimum of manipulation. Good to know. Back to the store for small red potatoes!

I used my little mandoline to shred the cabbage, onion, and partially the carrot for the cole slaw. It is a traditional mayo based slaw. I also used Dijon mustard in it and I think I will change that to yellow mustard. The Dijon is a little too strong. Best advice I can give is to keep tasting your creations as you are making them to make them taste best!

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Shrimp cocktail and a salad. 6/27/19

Posted on June 28, 2019 by Beebamom

Tonight we made another hot weather dinner. Unfortunately it was so chilly out that we had to close the back door! I am definitely not complaining about the weather though.  I know pretty soon it will be blazing hot again.

This is dead simple. John poached the shrimp by making up a tasty broth (court buillion) consisting of salt, lemon juice and zest, Old Bay, onion, and peppercorns in a pot of water. Heat to boiling and let it cook together for a few minutes. Turn off the heat and after a minute or two of cool down, add the shrimp, cover, and let them sit for 10 minutes. Drain and refrigerate the shrimp. Fix a cocktail sauce of ketchup, lemon, and horseradish.

Shrimp cocktail – Old School fancy!!

For my part, I had the onerous task of making a salad. I still do not like doing it but we have had so many salads lately that I am getting used to it. My salad consisted of Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, snow peas, radishes, scallions, julienned turkey pastrami, cucumbers, and feta cheese. It is dressed with a vinaigrette and I added garlic rubbed croutons. But you make yours the way you like best!

Pretty composed salad

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