Tonight, to go with the aforementioned German themed supper, I made spaetzle & tried a new sauce which was mentioned in one of the schweinschnitzel recipes I looked at - Rahm sauce. How I have never heard of this gravy is beyond me, but I could drink it straight by the gravy boatful! So bad for me on so many levels, but so, so tasty. Truly a thing of beauty.
Holy cow, that looks great! Recipe bookmarked.
I had half a Reuben sandwich, left over from dinner out last night (which also included cole slaw and a hot brownie with whipped cream.
This weekend I was ambitious with my meal prep. I made penne pasta with meat sauce, added the last two dozen Costco meatballs from my freezer, and cut up a couple of chicken sausages to ensure there was enough to go around for eight portions.
I thought I’d add a vegetable, so I also made a nice ratatouille, to work as a side dish.
Now I wasn’t going to bring the same lunch to work eight days in a row, and I have several cups of pearl couscous in my pantry, so I found a nice recipe that adds chicken thighs, onions, garlic, cherry tomatoes, and Kalamata olives, and made that too. Then I divvied them into a dozen freezer containers (four couscous, eight pasta), and put some ratatouille in each one.*
I had my first couscous chicken a couple of hours ago, and it was absolutely scrumptious! Although, I might be forced to cross the Fred Meyer picket lines, in order to find chopped red onions next time I make it (Winco only had chopped yellow onions).
*after serving the ratatouille, there was a lot of vegetable stock left in the baking dish, so before work, I used that in my rice cooker and poured half a can of chili beans over a bowl of rice.
Shrimp-ka-bobs. I used a jerk marinade on shrimp, then skewered them with pineapple and yellow bell pepper. I also grilled some banana peppers and some nectarines for dessert.
I was up very early today and later thought it would be a good idea to drive to my favourite little out-of-town deli, the place with the superb egg salad, and tuna salad that’s almost as good. Got a tub of each, along with their excellent cabbage rolls in tomato sauce and homemade Beef Stroganoff. Then I had a nice long nap.
Late dinner tonight will be some combination of the above. I’m thinking tuna salad sandwich with a Caesar, then Beef Stroganoff and a few glasses of Tempranillo.
A burger with corn on the cob.
I invented a weird meal last night. I stuffed banana peppers with a sausage mix. I ordinarily then bake them in tomato sauce. Last night, however, I first cooked some lasagna noodles, drained them, then used them to wrap the stuffed peppers.
I then baked the “roll-ups” in tomato sauce and cheese. My gf asked where I found this recipe, but I just made it up. It worked. Served with a side salad.
Last night I made a ham steak with baked sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, and steamed cabbage. We were too stuffed to have dessert!
No dinner last night. See, at noon there was the annual family reunion with the ginormous pot luck meal. I always overeat. When I was a child I’d go back for seconds and thirds, now at nearly seventy one plate plus desserts does me in. I had contributed a chocolatecream pie(grandma’s recipe) and a peach pie with streusel topping.
Last night was pizza with white sauce, shaved parmesan, prosciutto, arugula, and hot honey. Leftovers were today’s lunch.
My gf worked from home today so she threw turkey kielbasa, onions, cabbage, potatoes, etc into the crock pot. The house smells great!
Hot honey is great. I remember the first time I ran into a pizza with hot honey a few years back and was surprised I’d never heard of it before.
Yes, previously I’d drizzle a little balsamic glaze on the prosciutto pizza, but hot honey was possibly even better, as the balsamic has a pretty pronounced taste.
Dinner last night was an interesting frozen pizza. Made by a pizzeria in the area (but too far for delivery or pickup from the actual pizzeria). I love mushroom pizza and I love onions and this got my attention because it’s loaded with portobello mushrooms, caramelized onion, confit garlic, and two kinds of mozzarella on a sourdough crust. I expected it would have a base of tomato sauce but I discovered later, looking at the ingredients, that it was a cream sauce. Wasn’t sure I’d like that, but it turns out, that chef knows what he’s doing!
No frozen pizza can ever live up to the claim that it’s “just like we make it in the pizzeria”, but this was close. The instructions call for a very hot oven (always a good sign) and I baked it on a pizza stone, then gave it about 90 seconds under the broiler to really bubble and slightly brown the toppings. Absolutely delicious – but then, I adore mushrooms, onions, and garlic – and it had tons of cheese. No tomato sauce and no veggies so probably not a great health food, but man, what a comfort food! As they say on eBay, “will buy again”!
Somebody mentioned pork chops and gravy here recently, so that was last night.
I built gravy from garlic and a roux, added mushroom broth. Well, it was Better than Bullion. Set that aside, mandoline some taters and shallots, layer them in a casserole dish, add 3/4 of the gravy, into the oven for 30 min. Brown the chop, plop it on top of the taters, cover with the rest of the gravy, back in the oven.
Tasty.
And, indeed, today I did get another one. I was interested in what other varieties they had, but although the pizzeria makes a wide variety of frozen versions for retail sale, this store only had a pepperoni version. I got that, too, because although a frozen pepperoni pizza sounds like a forlorn thing, I have faith that top quality makes all the difference. I really loved that mushroom & onion pizza!
Anyway, that’s for later on. Dinner tonight will be baked chicken breasts in a Texas-style spicy marinade with baked mac & cheese. There will be leftovers of both. Leftover M&C will be had with slices of kielbassa, and leftover spicy chicken breast will be great with ramen noodles.
We had pulled pork leftover from debate night. I also made “faux sausage” as a side, a recipe I made up. I sliced Japanese eggplant into coins, then quickly stir fried them with a bit of oil, butter, and sausage seasonings. Delicious!
Dessert was baked apples. The farm store near us has begun their apple harvest. We will be eating apples often for a while.
The marinated chicken breasts were delicious (and there’s lots left over for tomorrow and beyond). But whoever wrote the baking instructions should be fired. It said “35 to 55 minutes at 400F”. That seemed like way too long (and a hell of a differential between min and max!) so I looked up oven-baked chicken breast recipes on teh interwebs and they were like 15 to 20 minutes at 450F.
I set the oven for 400F, the timer for 25 minutes, sprinkled some of the included fresh rosemary over it, and stuck in a meat thermometer. Bingo! Perfectly done. The instruction label was complete bullshit.
Very tangy and pungent and went great with the mac & cheese. The considerable leftovers will be good in ramen noodle, or even consumed cold or in chicken sandwiches – like maybe a toasted onion bun tomorrow with spicy chicken breast, lettuce, tomato, and mayo – mmm! 
Turkey “ham” loaf served with baked sweet potatoes. Pinot Grigio to drink.
Chicken chile verde bean burrito and corn on the cob.