Husband in the Kitchen

I do most of the cooking in our household- husband is great at the meats/fish/lobster dishes, and I do pretty much everything else. This week though, he dominated the kitchen!

He started out the week with a tomato/egg/bagel stack...I bought this tiny egg pan that fits just one egg and cooks a perfectly round fried egg. The pan is so cute, the checkout ladies were actually cooing over it when I bought it. He sliced up a couple bagels very thin, toasted them, then stacked with fried eggs and tomatoes...a perfect summer dinner.

Monday was another light meal...I had baked bread during the day and we ate that with tomato, the most perfect avocado, and a very nice bottle of wine.

Tuesday he made a meal I am still thinking about! We had found some veal at a nice price, which he breaded and pan fried while roasting some vegetables...baby red potatoes, brussels sprouts, garlic, and onions, topped with rosemary. He made a white onion sauce that was amazing!

The vegetables were so perfect they were melting in our mouths!

Wednesday we went out to dinner for a friend's birthday...company was great but the food was a bit disappointing.

Thursday husband made tacos...a while ago we bought a tortilla press, and he has become a master of making fresh tortillas. I have tried (using his recipe) and it turned out to be a disaster. So he is our official tortilla maker. We served them with seasoned turkey, avocados, tomato, and cilantro. I don't think there is anything better than a fresh bread of any kind!

Friday we had cheese ravioli with "Amy's Cilantro Cream Sauce" to use up our cilantro. This is the best sauce for everything! I also roasted some onions and tomatoes and served them on top.

Saturday I tried my hand at veggie springrolls...have been craving them but haven't been able to find the rice paper until yesterday. I matchsticked carrots, apples, cucumbers, avocado, and picked some chives and lettuce from our container garden.

The last time I used our lettuce, it seemed a bit bitter to both of us, so I did some research trying to find a sweet lettuce. Didn't find anything, but did run across a tip that in temps over 65 degrees, lettuce does turn bitter (I am growing mine with an average temp of 85 degrees!) but if you pick it and put it in the fridge for a day it will sweeten up...and it sure did!

I also ran across a tip for making springrolls- I assumed you just pile up the ingredients and roll. Well, that doesn't work so well since the rice paper is so thin. So what you do is place your first ingredient along the edge, roll the paper over it, then place the next parallel, roll it all over that, and continue til the end when you tuck the ends in and make the final roll. Worked great! I served these with leftover cilantro cream sauce. Husband has actually never had rolls that were not baked or fried, but he said he loved them!

These were appetizers. For dinner I tried out a recipe from my last issue of "Vegetarian Times" called Asparagus and Mushroom Tartines.

These are made in foil packets. Place 2 pieces of bread on the bottom (I used leftover homemade bread from the other day), then add sliced mushrooms and asparagus that have been tossed in a bit of broth with salt and pepper. Mix an egg into a little more broth and pour on top. Seal the packets, bake 30 minutes at 350. Serve with a bit of goat cheese on top. Sooo good! And no pan to clean up!

This is the before photo...we ate too fast for an after photo!

Hope everyone has a great week!

A Pancake Love Story

Saturday was the end of our budget week, and we did so well all week that I didn't want to spend much for Saturday's dinner, though there wasn't much in the fridge. Husband felt like something Mexican, so I went to the trusty ingredient search here on AR. You wouldn't think I would find many recipes to use up half an avocado, pancake mix, and sour cream.

Well- Avocado Stuffed Yams and Jalepeno Pancakes sounded pretty good to me! I knew that husband wouldn't be thrilled, because he thinks I experiment on him too much. But it is kind of Mexican, right? He wasn't thrilled. He thought it was weird and would make ok side dishes but not a MEAL.

We were at happy hour not feeling very happy. I was feeling unappreciated and he was feeling underfed. We sulked for a few minutes, then both looked at each other.
"Skirt Steak", he said
"Rolled in the pancake!" I finished.
(This is why we can't play Trivial Pursuit AGAINST each other.)

Anyway, it was perfect! The Jalepeno Pancakes are just pancakes with about half a can of jalepenos... we grilled the skirt steak and added sour cream and cilantro, then rolled up the pancake. It was kind of like a thick crepe! The Avocado Stuffed Yams were also great...you wouldn't think the flavors would go together so well. Our avocado was a day old and slightly brown, so this dish would have been prettier with a new avocado. But we both agreed this was one of the best meals in a while.

We spent $90.63 this week, so about $15 into vacation fund, and this is what we ate:
Sunday- Chicken Sandwiches with Pesto from our garden
Monday- Salsa Meatloaf with Parmesan Potatoes
Tuesday- Soup and Salad
Wednesday- Jambalaya
Thursday- Pesto Pasta
Friday- Roasted Red Pepper and Artichoke Pizza
Saturday- Pancakes and Yams

Our tomato did fantastic this week! If you remember, here he was a week ago:

And here he is today! We actually have one little tomato, too!

Mahi Mahi Mahi

Yep! We had one BIG fish three times this week! Husband caught a gorgeous Mahi Mahi earlier in the week and we were able to get two dinners and a brunch out of it. We were also given an avocado from a neighbor's tree that was gigantic...we had avocado with almost every meal!

Quick note about the fish- I do not eat a lot of fish as I got fish poisoning a couple times in the last few years. I don't think I had the very severe ciguatera, which can be fatal...but it was bad enough. I have also heard that if you are poisoned by one type, say snapper, you can eat snapper again and your body thinks it's poisoned even if it's not! So, very hesitant on the fish eating. But since T caught this himself out in very deep water (reef fish tend to be more dangerous), I decided to brave it. And it was really good fish.

Monday was avocado tacos with black beans and rice, T added fish to his. Tuesday was avocado salad and sashimi mahi (raw sushi style), but I admit I couldn't get past the texture and spit mine out over the balcony. Wednesday was spinach salad with turkey bacon, tons of veggies, and avocado, of course! Thursday I made my very favorite Tofu Parmigiana from AR. Friday was mixed vegetable quesadillas, and Saturday was fish again. T grilled it with a black bean garlic sauce and we had steamed broccoli and peanut satay. Sunday brunch was one of T's favorites, fish and eggs. We had run out of stove propane so the fish was grilled and I made microwave scrambled eggs.

If you've never tried eggs in the microwave, they are very fluffy and very easy. Scramble up your eggs in a microwave safe bowl, add a splash of water and a pat of butter. Microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring the cooked edges in to the middle. I did 5 eggs and it took about 4 minutes total.

Sunday night I made turkey burgers sans buns, along with a broccoili pasta salad. Overall, a pretty healthy week and I only spent $69, so $36 into vacation fund!

Hope everyone has a great week!