April Cook at Home

[Rosemary]

I hosted the soup and craft time yesterday. Made a garlic/asparagus stock using the ends from 2# of asparagus and 2 bulbs of garlic. Then added roasted zucchini and onions and cooked long-grain brown rice. Topped with Romano cheese. It received rave reviews. Modified from a Moosewood recipe.

Made some hard-boiled eggs for weekend lunches. DD had 2 for lunch today.
Cut up red bell pepper and carrots and made some "ranch" dip (yogurt, a little mayo, salt, and some dried chives).
Cooked up a batch of pinto beans this morning and am making some 'beanballs' to go with DD's pasta tonight. With herbs inside them, and sauce & Romano cheese on top, I am pretty sure they'll be plenty flavorful. Some extra pinto beans in the fridge, I'll have for breakfast or lunch over the weekend.
Tonight, DD and her friend and DH will have pasta and salad; I'll have a salad with one of the hard-boiled eggs. Tomorrow night, DH and I are going out; DD will have pasta again, with salad.

[cdttmm]

Friday night is nachos night at this house! We're topping them with homemade vegetarian chili and they are in the oven right now -- smells so good!

[Blackdog Lin]

"Beanballs". Rosemary, that's a cool idea, and one I might have to try.

Today, Thursday's leftover beans and fried 'tators with a fresh green salad I made. Tomorrow I'd planned pizza, but DH has "grillin' fever", as the weather is s'posed to hit 70 degrees, along with the fact that the local grocery had giant pork roasts at $1.18/lb. So he's gonna smoke a pork roast all day, and I bought brussells sprouts to go with. Haven't ever tried roasted brussells sprouts and might do that. Big yums tomorrow night. And Sunday Italianish sausage pasta w/garlic toast, to use up the rest of the half-n-half in the fridge, and have a giant loaf of bread to use up. No ideas beyond Sunday - we'll see how the leftover situation works out.

[Rosemary]

Even my DH said the beanballs were good. Modified a recipe from Laurel's Kitchen:
1.5 c pinto beans, cooked and drained
about 2T chickpea flour (could have used more, or something else to dry the texture a bit, like some oats)
1 egg
1/4 c onion, minced and sauteed
salt, oregano, basil
- Mix and refrigerate so they are easier to handle. Form into 1.5 Tbsp balls and place on oiled baking sheet - makes 12. Bake at 350 20 minutes or until dry and hot. (This made the outside dry but the inside was still very moist - could bake longer at a lower temp, perhaps). Add to tomato sauce and allow them to absorb a little before serving.

[domestic goddess]

This past week at work was long and hard, so I haven't cook since last Sunday. Think I'll make a roast today so there will be beef leftovers for sandwiches. And maybe a pan of mac and cheese just to nosh on. DD and dsil like my homemade mac and cheese, but the kids won't even try it because it isn't neon orange and tasteless. Their loss. I make a good mac and cheese. Since I'm only workint 2 nights this week, I plan to really do some cooking, as well as some yard work. DD and dsil don't seem to grasp that you have to actually do something outside, if you want a nice place to spend some time, once the lot has already been built upon and altered. It just doesn't revert to it's former natural beauty like something that hasn't been disturbed. And I enjoy sitting on the front porch, watching the kids play. Several of the kids play outside now, though there were none who did when dd and dsil first moved here. Of course, they are all older, but both dgd's have always played outside and finally other kids started to join them. Maybe because one of us was always outside with them, other parents felt it was safe enough to allow their kids out. In such a quiet suburban neighborhood, I just don't understand it. We also seem to be some of the few people who cook outside in the summer. Don't know how that is going to go, since our friend who also lived here and did all the grilling has moved, but I guess I'm gonna learn! Looking for a good chicken salad recipe. Any suggestions?

[Rosemary]

Dinner tonight was teriyaki salmon and salad, and the last of the fried rice I made for lunch yesterday.
I have some leftover pasta & sauce in the fridge that, along with some green beans, will make a couple of hot lunches for DD to take.
I started planning this week's meals but ran out of steam... will get back to it tomorrow.

[Kat]

Ugh! I haven't made the skinny sloppy joes OR the sandwiches yet. DH keeps requesting other things and we did eat out once. So I am going to freeze the stuff for the sandwiches and make the sloppy joes tonight. I want to make DH the things he wants to eat, but it makes me crazy when he says he wants something and then decided he wants something else at the last minute. Then I end up with all this food on the verge of going bad. He is getting the sloppy joes tonight whether he wants them or not. Ha!

[Rosemary]

Today I'll make a stock with some organic turkey wings I've had in the freezer, which are fabulous for that purpose.
Tonight we'll have carrot-ginger soup (made with some of the turkey stock), and salad with turkey.
Tomorrow, turkey tacos.
Wednesday & Thursday, beef stew (heavy on the vegetables) and steamed broccoli.

[domestic goddess]

Didn't make the roast yesterday, as the rest of the family was at a birthday party and ate tnere. Was going to head to the store to get a few needed things (some for dinner), when dd told me she had stuff for dinner, so I didn't need to go to the store. So I guess it will be Hamburger Helper tonight. After I gave up the idea of going to the store, she got aggravated because there weren't eggs (on my list) and I then wasn't going to the store. She went with dsil to get some parts for a car repair, and I guess she'll buy eggs then. Not sure what tonight's dinner will be, but I'm guessing HH, high salt for my hypertension.

[treehugger]

Weekend meals:
Friday I cooked some soba noodles, poached chicken, and steamed broccoli to go with the rest of the miso dressing from earlier in the week.
Saturday, I made Awesome Sauce to go with the rest of the soba noodles, and served that with sauteed chicken, and in-pod edamame.
Sunday was baked breaded cod, served with malt vinegar, oven fries (red and russet) and the rest of the edamame.

Miscellaneous weekend cooking: egg salad for sandwiches, and semolina pizza dough to be stored for use later in the week. I also grated a bunch of fresh ginger to store in the freezer.

Kara