Phew! This last week feels like it was a couple of weeks combined! My lovely Katie (middle child) moved back home. She’s been quarantining in a friend’s home for about six months, but she was ready to come back. We’re happy to have her back, but of course it requires some adjustments when you add anyone new into your house, especially so during quarantine life. It’s going to be especially interesting though because she also loves cooking. Okay, let’s talk about the cooking adventures this week.
Thursday (1/21) – We started the day with homemade sausage, egg and cheese biscuits. I used the Damn Delicious recipe again. It makes the flakiest, tastiest biscuits. My husband found a copycat recipe for the McDonald’s sausage, so I made that. I coddled the eggs, which had mixed results. On the one hand, I loved the texture and style of the eggs, but on the other hand, I forgot to oil the bowls, and so there was a bit of a mess. I thought the sausage was a little bland, so I’ll try to improve that next time, but overall, it was a delicious breakfast. The kiddo, of course, only had egg and cheese on her sandwich. For dinner, we just had leftover baked chicken thighs.
Friday (1/22) – The husband and I did more leftovers.
Saturday (1/23) – I made sausage gravy for some of the leftover biscuits we had for breakfast…okay, it was more like brunch, as we slept in. For dinner, I made braised pork shanks and potatoes using some of my mushroom broth for the braising. They came out delicious, but I totally missed taking a picture this time.
Sunday (1/24) – K came home! Oh, and I made fried chicken for dinner. It was good, but I think my oil is getting to it’s last use. The legs darkened well before they were done enough inside. To be honest, I kind of lost track of how many times I had used this batch of frying oil. Okay, I’ve now convinced myself to go ahead and throw it out this time.
Monday (1/25) – I made shrimp scampi with linguine. K was having a bit of a tough stomach day, and I wanted something that might be gentle. Also, shrimp is so easy to pull from the freezer and thaw when you forget to get any meat out for dinner. It was delicious.
Tuesday (1/26) – A neighborhood buddy of mine had given us a whole smoked chicken from a farm he likes in Michigan, so I made chicken salad. I just happened to have black grapes and all my favorite ingredients. I also made a loaf of sourdough bread, so it was just destiny. We had the kiddo, as we’d traded Monday for Tuesday, so I just made her a grilled cheese. I also made creamed peas, which everyone seemed to enjoy. Unfortunately, we did not actually like the chicken, so the salad was not a winner. I think it was one of the preservatives used in it. Oh well, it was a nice thought.
Wednesday (1/27) – Katie made dinner. We had gotten these Asian rice cakes from another neighbor friend. She stir-fried them with some corn, onions and water chestnuts in a pretty tasty sauce. She served them with Brussels sprouts on the side. The noodles/cakes were quite an experience. They are very dense and chewy. I think they would likely go much better in a soup. It wasn’t bad, just weird.
So kind of a light cooking week overall, but I’ve had a little more work this week, so that was okay. And you know I’ll probably have to make up for it by cooking all the things this next week. To be honest, it’s already started. But I now have an extra helper, so that means I can get really creative and crazy because you know, I’ve been so reserved so far. See ya next week.
Foodie's Delimma 