What a whirlwind of a week, with late nights a plenty and long days to boot. Our School's parent association met on Thursday night for dinner and our half-yearly meeting. The next night my book club met. This is a six-weekly event for me, and one that I cherish so deeply. After most of the other ladies have left for the evening, the final four that are left are women whom I have known for over two decades. These are the women who have known me through thick and thin. We only get to see each other at book club now, for the most part, so our catching up is a high priority for all of us. Then, on Saturday, I did a Bread Basics workshop with a local artisan baker. I discovered that bread baking is both simpler and more complex than I ever thought it could be! It is highly scientific and mathematical, and yet the process is really more about the resting than the kneading. At the end of it all I came home with a hand-mixed loaf, baguettes, ciabattas and focaccia. My freezer is full!
A slow cooker update: My experiments were worthwhile. I finally caved in and bought a timer switch and this was the pivotal thing. Cooking meat for only the time specified and not cooking it all day long is life-changing. You can't cook much at all for 11 or more hours! But 6-8 is not uncommon. So, I need to get digging and find all those recipes that looked good, but I never tried. Incidentally, the chicken enchilada recipe I posted about last week was a huge hit. It was declared the best enchiladas ever made in this house. The booklet gave a recipe for homemade cream of chicken soup, which I tweaked to make with fresh milk instead of powdered. Oh my goodness - it was perfect. Not the scary stuff that comes in a can. So that will go on our menu plan again in the not too distant future.
This week however, this is our plan:
Monday: Jacket potatoes with leftover Texas Pulled Pork, from Saturday
Tuesday: I'm home alone...maybe baked salmon with green beans & tomatoes, a la Jamie Oliver
Wednesday: Veggie Plate
Thursday: Pasta with veggie sauce
Friday: Fend for Yourself
Weekend: I'm going to go slow cooker hunting and see what I can come up with here. Or it might be homemade pizza, using fresh pizza bases from Aldi - they are delicious.
No comments:
Post a Comment