Quarantine Life Week 47

I’m working more, and I am sharing my kitchen with Katie, my middle child, so I feel like I’ve been doing a little less super complicated cooking. But I’m still putting dinner on the table most evenings. I’ve had some crazy insomnia, so not been so into elaborate breakfasts lately.

Thursday (2/18) – I made harissa shrimp and creamy polenta. Okay, my polenta is really what should be called corn mush as I use corn meal to make it. This one came out great. It was solid enough but still had that creamy texture I love. And I discovered harissa and shrimp definitely go together. And most impressively, I made just the right amount that the three of us (husband, me and Katie) had just enough with no leftovers!

Friday (2/19) – It was just the husband and I, so we just had leftovers. Sometimes the best way to celebrate no kid weekends is just to be lazy.

Saturday (2/20) – I took the pork roast from last week and shredded it and make barbecue. I also roasted some creamer potatoes with garlic and olive oil for a side. I’ve always been a barbecue plate as opposed to sandwich kind of gal, so it was great.

Sunday (2/21) – I made braised pork shanks with potatoes and onions. I braised them in beer this time, a very hoppy IPA. This was mainly because I forgot that I also had a couple of bottles of wine in my store room. I thought they were good, but the red wine braise is much better.

Monday (2/22) – I made a broccoli and cheddar soup. I had a nice head of broccoli, and I had the cheese. I used a recipe that combined cream and broth for the base. I didn’t dislike it. I’ve made some that were heavy broth and some that were milk based. This one felt like a hybrid. I still think I like the milk-base better. Although I have not recently tried the beer cheese soup base.

Tuesday (2/23) – Katie and I made chicken parmesan together and served it over angel hair pasta. We used boneless, skinless chicken thighs and breaded them with a beer batter. We then used this amazing red sauce I got from a buddy of mine who makes a huge batch like once a year. We topped it with provolone cheese. It was incredible.

Wednesday (2/24) – We had a pizza night. I used a recipe from King Arthur for the crust. I swear, this has been my favorite homemade crust to date. It was super crisp on the bottom, but not just like a cracker. I didn’t quite roll it as thin as I would prefer, so I’ll work on that next time. Katie helped and we made two pizzas, one vegetarian and one for the meat eaters. The vegetarian one had tomatoes, cheese and mushrooms on the whole pizza and onions and garlic on only half. The meaty one was sausage (my homemade Italian), garlic and onion. It was a very successful pizza night.

I felt like I didn’t do as much cooking from scratch, but now that I write it out, I really only phoned it in a couple of times. It’s because even when it’s been a super busy day, cooking still makes me feel better. It’s like that AHHH moment of my day.