Friday, June 11, 2010

Friday Roundup

Where oh where did this week go?  We came home from Rhode Island and haven't stopped since!  After a very hectic weekend recuperative sleep-in, Monday morning was spent, attaching the new wireless keyboard and mouse to the desktop computer, this involved rewiring the whole back of the computer desk, got rid of cables that were just hanging out from discarded equipment.  This all started because the cable guy moved the desk to repair our cable connection and the printer was unplugged in the process and the cords dropped behind the desk unobtainable after the desk was returned to it's normal position.  The good news is cabling is more efficient and all computer dust bunnies have been vacuumed away! The afternoon we rearranged the furniture and storage area of the Guest Bedroom.  We were preparing the space for the delivery of our newly purchased Elliptical Exercise Machine

This entailed moving the book shelf that was home to over 100 of my treasured cookbook collection and 3 years worth of Food Magazines!  This past December I culled the mags to a rotating 3 year plan. One year out when new year goes into the magazine boxes sorted by month.  It's been a good system, but honestly with the Internet who needs all these hard copies? 
My new process is to read the issue, dog ear any recipes I think might work for a client or personal test, then I gather all the magazines from a specific month and sit at the computer searching for them online.  Experience has taught me to wait at least a month and they all appear either on the magazine's site or someones blog! Once they are found I download them to Mastercook to be tested and tweaked and/or to be used for clients' menus.

So I took a deep breath and tossed 2007-2009 issues of most subscribable food magazines!  Ahhh, still feeling a bit light headed with withdrawal pangs!  But progress, needed to lighten up the room as well as the body!

We moved all the books onto shelves on another piece of furniture and then decided that that piece of furniture needed to be moved! Duh!  Unloaded the books and moved all the furniture then reloaded.  These books got more handling than they've had in years!

Meanwhile we were on the phone trying to determine the footprint of the elliptical machine, can you believe it's not listed on the web page for the manufacturer?  Next we called Dick's where we purchased it and the salesperson couldn't find a tape measure!  He called a few hours later and said he found a brochure and gave us the measurements.  We'd successfully cleared the right amount of space with extra. 

All this cleaning was as good as a workout, I was actually too exhausted to cook.  We decided to have Deli for dinner!

Tuesday, we cooked and made 3 new to me entrees:
  • Penne with Eggplant & Pesto with tomato sauce
  • Braised Chicken Thighs with Shallots
  • Turkey Sausage & White Bean "Cassoulet"
All three were amazing.  The Eggplant is cubed and roasted then tossed with homemade basil pesto.  This is then combined with Chef Jim's 20 minute tomato sauce.  Served with Penne it's a wonderful meaty, meatless, meal.
For the Braised Chicken Thighs I used boneless, skinless thighs and reduced the cooking time a bit.  The sauce is punched up with Dijon mustard, I'm thinking next time of using a tarragon mustard to give it a little more flavor.
The "Cassoulet" was tasty as written and so easy!
Side Dishes were:
  • Brown Rice Confetti;
  • Green Beans with Portobello Saute;
  • Fennel Layered with Potatoes and Bread Crumbs.

Wednesday the elliptical machine was delivered and assembled.  We both tried it out for 2 minutes each, still sore from Monday's moving activity!  Just wanted to get a feel for it.  I did another 5 minutes later in the day.  I can see that it'll take us some time to get up to the 30 minute workouts suggested.  But very excited about the low impact it will provide this old body!

Thursday I cooked in Manhattan:
  • Roasted Lemon/Garlic Chicken Legs;
  • Classic Beef Stew; 
  • Roasted Salmon with Orange Dill Sauce; 
  • Brown & Wild Rice Pilaf;
  • Roasted Slices of Japanese Yams with Dill;
  • Two Color Cauliflower Vegetable Medley.  

Our meals have been simple this week, Deli; Pasta w/Chef Jim's 20 minute tomato sauce;  Stir-fry Orange Pork & Broccoli; Roasted Chicken Sausage, Potatoes, Carrots, Onions and Garlic.

The highlight dish this week was dessert!  Nana made Lemon Pudding Cakes from Cuisine at home.  You can see the recipe and picture here.  These were delicious, pretty light as in not overly filling, great follower to the Stir-fry meal.  These will be added to the Tried N True list!  Check them out, very basic prep, we will add more blueberries next time, I'd like them in every bite, wondering if raspberries might be a good sub or maybe in addition to the blueberries!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm sure you all are scratching your heads, Chef Jim is talking about a elyptical machine for health purposes in one sentence and then Lemon Pudding Cakes in the next. Oh well, can't do away with all the sweets just yet. They were very good.