Jan 30 – Shared with Friends

We were invited to our neighbor’s house for dinner tonight. Carole marinated chicken and broiled it and served it with wild rice. Jerome made a fabulous vegetable curry, and dessert was a lovely apple cobbler with struesel topping. We had a great time solving the problems of the world over a delicious meal. Social eating is great. Especially when I don’t have to cook! Enjoy your dinner! V.

Jan 29 – Healthy As All Get Out

Tonight’s dinner was a spinach salad with a salmon steak (pan seared with dill, garlic, salt, pepper and lemon juice) flaked over the top. I made truffle Mac’N’Cheese for hubby to go with his salmon steak and salad. That was it. This was paired with spicy Bloody Marys tonight. Enjoy your dinner! V.

Leftover lasagna

Beef and venison lasagna

I had this for dinner tonight: leftover beef and venison lasagna I made a couple days ago. I also had this for lunch. I also had this for breakfast.

Fitzwilly’s

No picture tonight. We went to Sid’s for the weekly gathering this week, and ordered take out from a local place that serves typical American restaurant fare. Kevin and Dave got Thai lettuce wraps and Sid and I got barbecue plates. Mine was brisket with mash and coleslaw. The brisket was served with two slices of white bread, and a piece of cornbread studded with something green that I really hope was jalapeno. I had a bite of it but couldn’t get over the unappealing color long enough to put down another serving of starch. White bread is just the thing under sliced, braised meat and thick gravy, though, even the sweet kind.

January 29: Steak and truffle butter, with veggies

Gamey steak with dreamy truffles.

This would be “the usual,” if a friend of mine hadn’t just had a monstrous haul of white truffles from Oregon. I’ll be making a bunch of Truffle Butter, but tonight just grated one little one and mixed with some ghee for Whole 30 complaint “truffle butter.” Truffle Ghee…. It made a less-than-awesome steak downright decadent.

The steak was left from a cow that we bought, and, I dunno, it wasn’t aged long-enough, I think. Just a little gamey for my taste….  And honestly, I’m tired. And I want to finish writing an article about poop. And one about fun things to do with penises. So I’m gonna do that.

Jan 28 – Stewed in a Pot

No, not me, though it’s not a bad idea. Tonight’s dinner was country-style pork ribs, oven BBQ’d to perfection. This is one of hubby’s favorite meals along with rice or potatoes. All three of these choices sound wonderful to me, but are verboten due to my elevated blood sugar issue.

Hubby did the grocery shopping last trip he took into town (40 minutes away) without me and had purchased a gianormous bag of fresh spinach. Needless to say I am on a quest to eat my way through this bag before it becomes less-than-fresh. Spinach is quite perishable, and he seriously over-estimated my love and desire to include it as an ingredient in every.Single. Meal.

I opted to strip the meat of the leftover chicken from Monday and stew spinach and (a can of whole peeled) chopped tomatoes together with onion and celery. I then added seasonings and the shredded chicken and simmered until the chicken was warmed through and the vegetables were cooked. It looked like a mess, but tasted pretty good! It was a small comfort to me while hubby was over there smacking his lips and making yummy sounds over his BBQ. Enjoy your dinner! V.

Jan- 27 Gotta Frittata?

The winter here in southern Oregon has been less than wintery. We had some snow in December but it didn’t stick around. The month of January has given us temps in the 40s and 50s which has thoroughly confused my poor hens. Egg production slowed and then stopped completely when days got shorter and nights got colder. I resigned myself to buying eggs at the grocery store which I loathe. Once you’ve had fresh farm eggs, you’ll never want another store-bought egg. I had just purchased my second sad 18-pack of eggs at the store 2 weeks ago when the miracle occurred. An egg in the hen house! Now we are back up to 4 and 5 a day, which is about half of summer production, but nevertheless has left me with a surplus of eggs in the fridge.

As I washed and packaged another day’s worth of beautiful fresh eggs, I decided to cook up and be rid of the mediocre store-bought eggs as quickly as possible. This led to the creation of a veggie frittata. I diced onion, celery, green chile, and tomato. I chopped some spinach and began the saute’. The eggs were beaten with about a half cup of goat’s milk ‘til smooth. When the onions and peppers were softened in the skillet, I added the tomato and spinach. I poured the beaten egg over the veg and let it cook. When it was nearly ready, I grated some Colby Jack cheese over the top, turned off the burner and covered the pan to melt the cheese.

My husband, freezer-diving as he is wont to do, came up with a small filet mignon to add the meaty component to the meal. I cooked it earlier in the day, then sliced it and put a quick sear on the slices in a skillet with some butter. This left me with only 5 store-bought eggs to contend with.will boil them tomorrow. Enjoy your dinner! V.

January 28: Salmon and Salad Bar

Salad bar. Again.

Celia’s lifting gym is nestled a million miles from our house, but conveniently between two hippie-style grocery stores. I know there are a lot of people who hate Whole Foods, but they have the best damned salad bar in the universe. And when I was sitting in a coffee shop writing about poop (literally) for two hours, and then caught the last hour of Celia lifting insanely heavy things, someone’s gotta cook dinner. And by someone, I mean someone who works at Whole Foods. I made a huge salad with greens, egg, roasted garlic, roasted artichoke hearts, roasted squash, green onions and probably some other stuff….. Broiled a salmon filet super quick when I got home and BOOM, awesome dinner. And with that, nailed day 22 of the Whole 30 Challenge. And now I’m going to bed, because I was at the gym at 5:00 am. (Again, I ask, who the hell works out that early??????)

Beef and Venison Lasagna

Beef and venison lasagna

I’ve had it with these no-cook noodles. They’re full of shit when they tell you to bake your lasagna without covering it in foil, and again when they say it will only take 30 minutes. In fact, I call bullshit on the entire business of lasagna you don’t have to pre-boil, because guess what: I’ve made lasagna, successfully, with the regular old noodles, and not boiled them. But you have to wrap the casserole in foil very tightly, and it takes an hour to bake. Exactly the same as with these stupid “no-boil” lasagna noodles.

January 27: Braised Pork Roast and Things

Aaaaand, I’m obsessed with pressure cookers. As in, I got another one. The one I have (that was given to me by may favorite chief that Brady has had,) is big enough to bathe a toddler in. So I got a newborn size. And tonight, they were both churrtling away on the stove. One with chicken stock (which I gave away because I have TOO MUCH STOCK) and one with a citrus braised pork roast.