Cooking Journal for Second Week of March

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I was completely exhausted for most of last week (with reason, at least!) so didn't post a cooking plan and have spent the week alternating recuperation with social activities. This makes me feel happy as I was getting starved for monkey-time (at least monkeys who are not Brad!) I also very lavishly went out and danced on Sunday; my plan was not to dance but the Red Elvises MAKE me dance, it's impossible not to at least a little, and this time there was no seating downstairs at all and also it was freezing, so dance I did, if not nearly as spectacularly as aelfsciene, who even got up on stage and belly danced. That was the most exercise I've had since my remission ended and I definitely overdid it, but I had a splendid time and it was well worth it. I also did at least participate in last Sunday's cooking (soup and helped prep veggies) so I don't feel like a total dancing fool. Brad did the heavy lifting last week, though, making not only lasagna but roasting the vegetables and doing all the work on the frittata and baked beans on Wednesday.


This Saturday he was judging a science fair (woot! they sound like so much fun!) so after dithering a while I went to the Cabrillo market on my own. Of course that was the day that I found a bunch of heavy things on sale! Rather than forming a real food plan I pretty much just shopped for whatever looked good and then staggered home, put away the perishables, and fell asleep. Today I eventually felt a little more human (after heroic amounts of napping) so was able to do some of the cooking and thanks to the more organized kitchen we were able to put together a lot of sides without bumping into each other too much, though we ran out of places to put pans.

Mains:

• done -- Salmon rosti -- This was fussy and did not hold together very well, though it tasted pretty good. If I ever have a craving to combine canned salmon with hash brown potatoes again (sort of an odd craving, but I guess it could happen) I'd use the baked hash browns recipe, reduce the salt, and just toss salmon and minced onion or shallot in for something like a slightly fancier tuna casserole.
  
• done -- spinach lasagna -- Brad makes awesome lasagna and this was no less awesome, and also used up two huge cans of eggplant porcini spaghetti sauce that I had squirreled away. We even froze a bunch for later.
  
• done -- frittata -- I had planned for a lemon leek goat cheese frittata, but crashed bigtime Wednesday and missed the farmers market, so instead we made a no-shop frittata with broccoli and spinach from the freezer
  
• done (this week) -- ground beef skillet with young leeks and roasted butternut squash -- a no-shop special making use of things I'd bought at the market, half a can of tomato paste we had open, and grassfed beef out of the freezer
  
• partially done (this week) -- Spiced Lamb Riblets -- we defrosted them today and I decided I'd rather braise them, so I am marinating them in red wine and some of my leftover spicy molasses barbecue sauce, and I tossed on the last of the fresh lemon thyme and oregano; this should make uncomplicated eats, if a WEE bit of a surplus; we thought we were going to eat those today BUT instead we had....
  
• done (this week) -- surprise bacon! -- Brad accidentally left this out when he was digging out the ground beef, and it was thawed by the time we found it, so we ate up the whole package for lunch, along with toaster waffles and maple syrup (might as well) and no... we were not hungry for dinner. Bizarrely this did not turn out as egregious as I thought; I was going to make this my "free meal" but it balanced up by the end of the day when I added a healthier snack. Not the wisest choices nutritionally, but it's still impressive that it's possible to balance a surfeit of bacon. I also did not react to this, either because I haven't eaten pork for ages or because it's TLC pastured pork. I'm kind of tempted to challenge pork, but will wait until I'm feeling better overall.
  
• planned -- Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk -- with a whole chicken I have in the freezer; this will probably be delayed given the whole lamb riblet situation.
  

Soup and Sides:

• done -- high heat roasted vegetables -- I bought way too many of these, dreaming of kvass and lacto-fermented pickles that ran aground on the reality of too much standing around and slicing/chopping. Beets, watermelon radish, turnips, sweet potatoes, onions, and whole cloves of garlic, this was colorful and lasted the whole week AND we froze some. Yikes! But they didn't go bad, awesome.
  
• done -- Suzanne Goin's Squash and Fennel Soup -- I spazzed when trying to skim the cream off my milk, so no creme fraiche this week; this has that as a topping as well as delicious looking candied pumpkin seeds that I skipped because I was too tired. Even without those additions this was a mighty fine soup. I would add less sherry unless I was planning to add the creme fraiche, though. Used frozen butternut to get it out of the freezer and this made a monster batch of soup so I froze some for later.
  
• done -- Quebecois maple baked beans -- suffered from a "fiddling after baking" issue in which the heat got knocked down when the lid came off, which meant they were slightly underdone and liquidy. Also we ran out of maple syrup partway through and had to sub molasses, and couldn't find white beans so used pinto. They were tasty but need work. Actually I want to find a good overnight recipe for baked beans which is more mustardy and less sweet.
  
• done (this week) -- roasted asparagus -- lemon juice, lemon thyme, olive oil, salt, pepper; working out my obsession with roasted veggies while it's still cold out. Also, YAY for spring! Asparagus is my major marker of spring, and while it's been at the market for a few weeks, this is my first asparagus. My mother always used to wish on it.
  
• done (this week) -- kale chips -- since the oven was hot already; I forgot to set the timer and then wandered off so these came out on the extra-crispy side
  
• done (this week) -- butternut squash seeds with smoked paprika -- the oven was hot already; these were small so didn't take long at all
  
• planned -- Roasted parsnips with horseradish -- Good thing these are a keeper, too. Mighty root veggies are great for people with eyes bigger than stomachs.
  
• planned -- use up pantry soups until midweek
  
• planned -- Mustard Green Soup -- maybe with potato for a change from all of the sweet potato and squash; I have some spring onions coming in my next grocery order, too; if I run low on asparagus the mustard greens may also get repurposed as a side. I'll probably use up the asparagus ends in the soup.
  

Fresh Fruit and Veggies

• done -- salads: mesclun with various buttermilk dressings; I had gotten some fresh mint for Zeno's lamb riblets and used that in the dressings and liked the combo; I like to add Greek yogurt for a tasty thickener, too. (Not a fan of mayo.)
  
• done -- improvised potato salad with red cabbage and dijon yogurt dressing -- this was quite tasty but because I blanched the cabbage it turned a rather alarming shade of purple. I think it would have been prettier with purple potatoes and not the yukon golds I used. I did like taking the edge off the rawness of the cabbage, so it wasn't a terrible idea except for the color. (And I had the mineral/vitamin rich potato/cabbage broth, too.)
  
• done -- fruit: this one is always easy. We were still on the winter regime of mandarins, kiwifruit, dates, and apples. I added a little rosemary (minced leaves and whole blossoms) to his apples one day for a change.
  
• planned -- spinach salad with bacon dressing -- an echo of today's surprise bacon feast; I saved a couple of pieces and am going to make a wilted spinach salad with them; if I'm feeling perky I'll even caramelize the onions first
  
• optional -- fruit compote? -- it's kind of apple-heavy this week since the selection was limited, so I might make an apple compote if I feel up to it; I just wing this and use basically my mom's apple pie filling recipe, but less sugar and butter and sometimes I add mace instead of cinnamon
  

Ingredients, either in the making or that need a plan:

• done -- mung bean sprouts -- These were good and I'll probably do a smaller batch of these or lentils this week if I have the energy to fiddle with them, since we don't have any bean dishes planned so I need to have beans "on the side"
  
• mostly done -- avocado -- still eating the last shipment I bought SO MUCH AVOCADO YUM
  
• planned -- strain leftover yogurt to make yogurt cheese -- good thing yogurt keeps!
  
• planned -- Bearss limes -- good thing these keep; use some in guacamole and zest & juice them for freezing
  

Optional:

• planned -- salt-preserved Meyer lemons -- (and perhaps some limes) I am super excited about the bergamot oranges and rangpur limes now available through Santa Cruz Local Foods but swore a mighty vow that I will get no more citrus other than a few "recipe lemons" until I deal with my citrus addiction AND catch up on a few non-cooking things
  
• planned -- beet kvass -- the fresh beets are slightly less fresh BUT I did manage to acquire a reasonably-sized vessel for kvass so I will no longer be making it in tiny quart jars
  
• planned -- red cabbage saeurkraut -- I ended up with most of the head so could still give this a try.
  
• (still) on the radar -- fresh sardines roasted in vine leaves -- probably not on top of all those fiddly meat dishes; maybe next week, but it HAS been a while since I've had fish
  
• (still) on the radar -- flourless nut butter cookies -- we haven't had time to make sweets or really much desire for them, but these are still at the top of the list when we're interested in sweets again
  
• sneaking onto the radar -- homemade ricotta -- this is my other carrot (or bergamot, as the case may be) for clearing through the above backlog and catching up on non-cooking things: learning how to make fresh homemade ricotta so we get good enough at it to actually use it in recipes; even more exciting would be making mozarella and then making ricotta from the whey, but baby steps