My Week in Food

Proof that my people really like their protein, this roast chicken was met like a long lost friend after many veggie-centric meals over here. I salted it generously and refrigerated it for two days, then squeezed (squoze?) the juice of a lemon over the whole thing, doused it liberally with paprika, turmeric, ground coriander, and sumac, and roasted it  at 375 degrees.

Not such a hit was our broken dishwasher and an eight-day wait for repairs. We realize how spoiled we are when we have to do without.

Luckily, not many dishes involved with making waffles. Stirred a fat roasted sweet potatoes into the batter and made enough so we’d have a stack in the freezer for weekday breakfasts.

Another breakfast favorite were these whole roasted apples made in the toaster oven and topped with Greek yogurt.

Scored these two beauties for a song at a sidewalk sale on Saturday.

This quote from the much beloved Julia Child caught my eye. Made me think how dated (and rightly so) the term “diet food” is.

We mostly ate in this week, but loved this meal out: a tikka masala kati roll (aka Indian burrito) with heaps of veggies on the side. 

Made a leisurely fish supper over the weekend from the newish cookbook Fish: 52 Seafood Feasts by Cree LaFavour. I love her name and her book, which she says is “for people who are scared to cook fish and almost as scared to buy it….for anyone who is a little picky about fish—those people who don’t love all fish and who will only eat pristine fish.” Her recipe, by the way, was an across-the-board hit.

The upside of having a drought is that we’re eating outdoors, even in January. Here,  a little last minute tapas set-up for a few neighbors and their pint-sized offspring.

 Just as I was beginning to wrap my head around babies and toddlers eating meals from a squeeze tube, I see that Chia Squeeze is marketed to moms. It didn’t actually taste so bad, but I think I’ll stick to fork and spoon eating.

Much more appealing on the chia front was this berry-topped pudding my oldest made with a friend using this recipe for inspiration. Gorgeous, no?

Also gorgeous is this  Chicken, Balsamic, and Caramelized Onion Flatbread from Aida Mollenkamp. I may have to add that to my Super Bowl line-up in addition to Lentil Nachos. More pie than flatbread was this savory pastry I’m calling “Rummage Tart” since it was the result of rooting around for dinner fixings: leftover pastry dough in the freezer, a couple of leeks and tiny mushrooms in the fridge, and a long-neglected butternut squash on the kitchen counter. Sometimes the odds bits make the best meals.

I roasted the extra butternut squash to use in a batch of breakfast muffins, prepping the ingredients the night before (I stored the wet mix in the fridge).

So in the morning, all that was needed was to stir up the batter and get it into the oven.  

How was your Week in Food?