What's For Dinner? Week 4

I know I've mentioned her before, but she's worth mentioning again... I just adore reading food posts/articles written by Jenny Rosenstrach (or her husband, who chimes in from time to time) over at Dinner: A Love Story. She's real. She's funny. And she's a meal time warrior, like me (fighting to preserve family meals)... only on a much bigger scale. She and her husband have kids and jobs and juggle life just like the rest of us. And they share their meal time trials and humor in a witty blog that is on my daily reader list. She's the one I told you has written a "dinner diary" of every single dinner meal she's eaten since February of 1998. She's also a food editor for Bon Appetit, Martha Stewart Living and Real Simple. Jenny is mostly wine-braised-pork-and-lentil-stew... and a little bit tater-tots ;-) as you will see in her latest blog entry. She's just so entertaining and she makes me want to keep on getting my hands dirty in the kitchen even on those tired nights when all I want to do is put my feet up. I actually don't use recipes from her blog all that often (maybe once or twice ever?) but you can be sure as shootin' I will have her upcoming cookbook on my shelves as soon as it comes out, if only for the inspiration it provides. (Okay, I'll probably make a few of the recipes too, just so I can justify the purchase. The girl knows food so I'm sure the food she makes is delicious.) I mean... look at the cover! It says (just like her blog heading) "It all begins at the family table". I love that! Check her out.

Here's our 2nd to last CSA veggie bag for the season:

Contents: cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, bok choy, green bunching onions, a zucchini, 2 tomatoes, 3 sweet potatoes and 2 acorn squash.

{Menu for November 19th-25th.}

This was Thanksgiving week so I have two dinners to share with you and then it was potlucks and fill-ins after that for the week.

One easy side dish I made with my cauliflower was lightly steamed and then baked cauliflower florets that were topped with a mixture of fresh Parmesan, Panko bread crumbs and melted butter. Plus a little salt, pepper and garlic powder. It was tasty, if a little salty. Parmesan is already salty so I think I'll skip the salt next time.

This week I also tried a couple recipes from a new blog called Many Makings, written by my friend Melissa and her friend Casey. There are so many yummy looking recipes over there and I'd been eyeing several of the ones involving pineapple. So I bought a big pineapple and tried out two (almost three -the quesadillas are going to have to wait for another time) recipes.

The first is their Chili-Rubbed Pork Chops with Pineapple Mango Salsa. It's right up our alley since we are die-hard fans of our staple grilled chicken with peach salsa. Loved it!

The other recipe I tried was their Pineapple Chicken Salad. I made this on karate night and I don't know if I was just starving or what, but it tasted like the best thing ever when I tried it before setting the table. I could hardly wait till Craig and Will returned from class. Probably had several bites of it before dinner even started. I love the addition of pineapple into your average chicken salad!

Delicious!

I didn't have rolls or pitas, but it tasted really good on bread.

Also on Monday morning, Sophie and I spent a little time in the morning (before Will's Thanksgiving program) making Weelicious Pumpkin Pear Bread. Only instead of pumpkin, I used the cooked puree from my buttercup squash. I had no idea what to do with buttercup squash, but I'd seen a buttercup tea bread recipe in an old Martha Stewart magazine shortly before seeing this Weelicious recipe and thought I might just substitute. Turned out pretty good! And we took slices of this to one of our Thanksgiving parties along with a fruit tray.

I took a fruit tray to Maumee Bay for my family Thanksgiving party as well and then brought my griddle and some pancake batter with homemade syrup the next morning to help feed the crew breakfast. :)