Sunday, Feb 28

I missed a day of blogging, so here I am trying to catch everybody up.
One meal we had was just ham, potatoes and green beans. I know eveyone knows how
to make that. Then last night I had the girls over for book club; we are cooking dishes that are inspired from the books we read....we had great fun, food and friends. I really enjoyed it, and I hope all the ladies did as well.
Here is what was on the menu:

Pizza with a garlic, olive oil base. The toppings were spinach, mushrooms and
capocola ham.

Angel hair pasta with an orange sauce, made from OJ, cognac, orange zest,
and orange marmelade with some grated chocolate sprinkled on top.

Anipasto salad with pasta, salami, tomatoes and olives.

Stuffed shells with a good red sauce. I don't know what Rosemary used, but it had
lots of cheese...

Gelato, both chocolate and vanilla.

Italian sodas.

And of course great wine! A really good red from a local vineyard, Black Ankle.

Our book was titled Pasta Imperfect, hence the italian food.

There are probably leftovers on the menu for tonight, but I'll let you know
if I do anything great with them-

Bye for now, and enjoy your food!

Friday, Feb 26

Last night Mark was cooking for me, as I was trying to take it easy.
Of course, I helped him out anyway. We had a simple meal of Chicken Fajitas.
This dish, if prepared with lots of items can cover all your food groups.
Most of you probably know how to make these, but here is what we used anyway-

Chicken Fajitas
Chicken Tenders(with the annoying tendon pulled out of them)
Bell peppers in varying colors
Jalepenos
Red Onions
Cheese ( I use a mexican blend that is pre shredded)
Lettuce, Tomatoes, Sour Cream, Black Olives, Salsa (as fixin's)
(spices: chili powder, oregano, cilantro, corriander, garlic, cumin, lime juice, teriyaki sauce)
Flour Tortillas

Put the tortillas in the overn to warm.

Brown the chicken slightly first, and then just throw the peppers and onions in the skillet and cover till the peppers are tender and season it up.

Assemble with as many of the fixins as you like.

A complete meal in a handy package!

Thursday Feb 25

Sorry I am late with this blog tonight, but I had a small outpatient procedure today.
Last night I was on my own, so I just steamed an artichoke in a little lemon juice and water and made a Balsamic Aioli Dipping Sauce.

Mayo
Balsamic vinegar
Basil
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Of course you can serve this as an appetizer to a nice steak dinner with some crusty bread. Get the baby artichokes, steam them, cut in half when cooled enough to touch
and then lightly grill them.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

Wednesday, Feb 24

Last night we had leftovers, but not to disappoint, here is one of my favorite salads. Topped this with some crispy pancetta (bacon or ham) and it is a light meal.

Tuscan Salad
field greens
canellini beans
tomatoes
red onion
basil
balsamic vinegrette
parmesan cheese
pancetta

Wash the canellini beans. Make the vinegrette with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a touch of honey, your favorite herbs and salt and pepper. Mix the field greens with the beans and dress with the vinegrette. Finely dice the tomatoes and red onion. Chiffonade the basil leaves and mix in with the tomatoes and onion. Layer your salad
with the greens, the tomatoes, then shave some parmesan on top and sprinkle with your
crispy pancetta.

introduction

I am creating this blog to help others come up with ideas for dinner everyday.

I don't intend to publish recipes, just ingredients and some suggestions for putting them together into something tastey. I am hoping to help you overcome the question about what's for dinner tonight.

I will be posting my suggestions the day after I made dinner, so they will all be tested on my better half. I know he will not let me publish anything less than yummy.

Again, these are just suggestions, you can substitute things you like or have on hand. I am assuming you know basically how to cook so I won't be giving times for things, or including measurements because first, I don't cook that way and second, you may be feeding more or less people than I. I intend to make things easy for anyone to make, but there will be some dishes that require more time than others.

And without much further ado-

Sausage and Penne with Spinach (4 yummies up)

Hot Italian Sausage (or sweet)

Peppers (I used a yellow pepper and 2 jalapenos)

Canned Tomatoes (I used fire roasted and italian style)

Cream cheese

Spinach

Brown the sausage with the peppers, while the water is coming up to a boil for your pasta.

Put your pasta in the water. Add the tomatoes to your sausage. Add herbs and spices (I used oregano, parsley, garlic and basil). Stir in the cream cheese when the tomato sauce is bubbling away happily. Wilt in the spinach at the last minute ans serve over your pasta.

Voila! Enjoy your meal.