Hot Stuff

Ok, so the curry was phenomenal. It was spicy without being stupidly hot. It warmed your mouth without burning, it tasted soooo good. Dean even liked it and he didn't mention it doing anything to his stomach, which can be sensitive to spicy foods so I'm pretty encouraged.

I was a little put out when I tried to buy stew meat at the grocery store for beef stroganoff because it was mostly crap and stupidly expensive.... but I bought some anyway. Dean has had a hankering for that stuff for a while and I rarely make it even though it's incredibly easy.

Other meals we've had this week, the mashed potato-topped turkey meatloaf which is just yummy. And boca burgers with mac and cheese and salad. Yeah, we eat boca burgers. They're not bad at all and I like that they're individually wrapped. If I make 4 hamburgers Dean eats three. If I unwrap two boca burgers.. Dean eats one and just has more mac and cheese and salad.

Mexican...

I need to have one of the girls at work here teach me how to make real Mexican food. Or... I need to move one of them in.

I have been eating so much Mexican food lately it's not even funny. One of our housekeepers has started to bring me in lunch every day and it is awesome. Well... most of the time anyway. I always have to make sure I ask what it is before getting into it.

Pepper salsa is awesome. I have to find out how to make this stuff.

Cous Cous

So Friday afternoon Dean and I went grocery shopping so that I'd have all the stuff I needed for the Thanksgiving stuff I had to take to his aunt's house on Saturday. Which, by the way, my turtle pie was about the only dessert to go. Everyone dug into my pie and the other desserts were barely touched. I love it when that happens. Next time I make it, I'm going to make the crust myself so I can do it up big time. I don't care how nice you make a pie look, if you make it with one of those premade crusts in the tin, it's just going to look chintzy.
Anyway, so we're in the grocery store and Dean grabs a box of cous cous from the shelf and I was like "really? cous cous?" But it's chicken flavored and apparently supposed to be good so I allow it. Let me tell you, it's going on my list of stuff to make when we need food fairly quick but not a huge meal.
Ok, so thanks to Ma I make ramen noodles once in a while like it's a gourmet dish or something. I drain the water, then add in the seasonings and a can of the tyson's chicken. It's actually reallly good that way. In fact, I didn't know ramen was supposed to be a soup until I hit college and actually looked at the directions. Go figure. So anyway, I went to make that last night and Dean had eaten it all so I pulled out the cous cous and did the same thing with that. It was really quite good... lots of flavor. So there you go.. we tried something new last night... and probably tonight too... as I'm making the curry.

Curry

So anyway, I usually like to plan something new at least once a month and this time it's going to be curry. Apparently curry is the most popular dish in the world and I've never had it sooo.. I'll try my recipe which I'm sure is highly americanized but I don't care.
I've found an amazingly rich pie recipe for Saturday thanksgiving. I'm also slowly trying to buy stuff for thanksgiving at my house for the other fruit side.
I tried a recipe for turkey meatloaf the other week that was actually incredibly good.

Nick did the cooking last night. He made steaks and asparagus. I was not so into the asparagus since the last time he made it I pretty much ate it all myself and I just can't stomach it again yet.

Tonight... no cooking for me... wedding food.

I made a pumpkin/cream cheese dip a couple of years ago that I made pie crust chips with. It was really good. Even if Nick's snot brothers turned their noses at it.

Italian Grilled Cheese

Yeah well, you soften up some butter and add garlic powder to it... then you put your bread on a baking sheet, throw on some moz. cheese and then top with another slide of bread. Butter the top of the top slice of bread with your butter/garlic mix and put in the oven on broil til brown, take out and flip and repeat. Voila!

I made meatloaf and spaghetti squash last night with some green beans... sooo yummy. I love spaghetti squash.

Dean and I got adventurous this past weekend and tried a pomegranate for the first time. They are quite good although the first attempt is interesting and I highly recommend reading the opening directions.

Tomorrow night I'm making the chicken pot pie I've been meaning to make. Homemade. I use low fat crescent roll dough instead of pie crust though and we'll most likely have a salad with that... I think I have a BLT caesar salad mix in the fridge.

Right now I'm preoccupied with finding some stuff to take to thanksgiving this weekend at Dean's aunt's house. I wanted to make a fun green salad but I'm pretty sure run of the mill is in order. I'm also taking a turtle cheesecake I think. My first attempt at making a cheesecake was last Thanksgiving, I made a pumpkin one that seemed to get rave results. Cheesecake is something that is easy for me to do fairly sugar free which is mandatory for Dean's family as everyone seems to be a diabetic.

Another Blah Night...

What in the world are Italian grilled cheese???? I swear... we have the most uneventful eating habbits in the world next to you guys. I need recipes... lots and lots of recipes.

So last night we just had hamburgers and get this... scalloped potatoes. Odd combination but that's what we had. Oh... and some baked beans. Pretty pathetic but hey... we all ate.

Tonight I have to think of something with pork chops. I have no idea what to make though and am completely sick of pork chops on the grill. So... I think I need to do some surfing before I go home.

The best-laid plans

So I've been dying for something different (and yet still cheap) to make at home and I came across this recipe for Sour Cream Pork Chops. Essentially you'd end up with pork chops in a kind of sauce that you can serve over noodles. Easy enough, right?

Not so fast.

So I start making this crap and I go back to the website and out of curiosity read the reviews. Oh, everyone thinks it's a bit flavorless. Most people have added a can of cream of mushroom soup. No biggie, so I go to the kitchen and would you believe I don't have a single can of the stuff? Seriously So I throw in a can of cream of celery only, when it comes time to add in the sour cream I pause..... cream of celery and sour cream? Sounds pretty gross to me. So I asked Dean and he vetoed it. Essentially, I made creamed pork on noodles last night. Good, but not quite what I was going for. Incidentally I also got Dean to try a new type of squash, he now likes both spaghetti and... crap... not the acorn one but the other one.

I'm also annoyed that I was informed yesterday afternoon what I'm supposed to be taking to Dean's aunt's for Thanksgiving this Saturday. I hate having to make additional trips to the grocery store. On the upside though... the mother-in-law is giving us a 23 lb turkey.

Oh! I also made some Italian Grilled cheese this weekend. Those were gooood.

Ahhh... McDonalds

I sent Nick to get me McDonald's today for lunch... and now I could pop.

Tonight we are going to celebrate Jack's b-day so it's pork chops, scaloped potatoes and some sort of vegatable.

He's little enough I don't have to make a certain meal for him for his birthday yet but he LOVES meat and potato type dinners.

The cake will be made by Jack Jack himself. He loves to cook and bake. He's great at cakes and pies.

It's funny. Mitchel - he's my cleaner. Jack's my cook. I have GOT to find a job for Tater because the other boys are so helpful and he doesn't have a job.

It's looking like a lot of McDonalds

So, I had a meal plan for this week but it's all gone now that Wednesday we're going to be on the road and Thursday we're going to be on the road. Since most of my meals are usually cumulative (leftovers or partial meats are used in the next night's meal) my menu is screwed.

Sucky. I don't even know what I'm making for dinner tonight. All I know is that we're going to have cake for dessert. Ha!

Happy..........Birthday?

So I went into this past weekend wanting to make a nice birthday dinner for Dean and that usually involves roast because the boy never gets enough beef as far as he's concerned. So we go grocery shopping Saturday morning and we get done and I fuss over the meat at Walmart and say it's just not good enough and he suggests we go to sams (which I knew he would) and we go and pick up a gigantic roast for half the price and then I casually walk by the birthday cakes and go "oh Dean, do you want a cake?" Yeah.

So then his grandmother dies and his parents aren't going to come over. So I call on Sunday and see if my mom wants to come over...nope... she's working. So I call Shelly... nope... she's working.

We have a colossal cake at home and I think Dean is going to have the saddest birthday ever on Tuesday. Poor thing.