This week, we still have visitors, we have a holiday, we have a birthday, and then more visitors! Plus, life still feels extremely high on the frazz-ometer. I have no idea what to plan or make! And yet I need to plan and make something. Many somethings.
Takeout is not really an option lately. My daughter’s and husband’s basically conflicting schedules mean that a) no one would get to eat the takeout while it is hot (which is a Big Deal to me even though I realize it doesn’t bother most people) and b) no one is available to pick up takeout anyway. I suppose I could conscript my in-laws into bringing takeout, but then there’s a Whole Thing with them wanting to pay for it and… well, I guess I can just let them pay for it.
Also, I do not want my mother-in-law to cook. I just don’t. (She would! She’s lovely! She wants to help! This is a Me Thing, and yes it makes life more difficult and yes I understand that and yet I still don’t want her to cook. I tried it the last time they were here and it just reinforced the fact that this is a thing I cannot handle for a variety of reasons. You will just have to accept this as a quirk I have, one that is incurable.)
Dinners for the Week of October 3-9
- Slow Cooker French Wine and Mustard Chicken: I am assuming (hoping) that the mustard in this chicken melds nicely into the background and isn’t all “Here I am!” jazz hands in your face. Because my husband dislikes mustard almost as much as I dislike tomatoes. Aside from the mustard, this ticks so many boxes that I need to tick right now: Slow cooker. Not too difficult. Includes spinach. (I bought a huge box of spinach for a recipe last week that I did not make and now I have a whole lot of spinach to use up.) (Yes, I realize the recipe calls for kale, but I don’t have kale, I have spinach.) I am opposed to sage, though. So with that and the mustard, maybe this recipe isn’t right for my family, I don’t know. I am grasping at slow cooker straws here.
Follow Up: This was fine, but not a hit. I did not pre-sear the chicken, and honestly it probably could have benefited from a little extra flavor. The mustard did not overpower, which was nice… and the spinach worked really well instead of the kale. But this was just a little… I don’t know. Flabby is the word I am coming up with, although I mean that in a taste sense not a textural one. The sauce was too thin, for one thing. And it had a flavor, but it was a little mild but also a little bitter. I don’t know. My in-laws were very kind about it, but my husband did not care for it and I was fully on the meh side of things.
- Sheet Pan Lemon-Herb Fish with Crispy Potatoes: I really, really would like to eat this… but I don’t know if it will happen. We’ll see. And… it doesn’t really have anything green. Do I need to make a salad to go with it? Maybe some quinoa/brown rice/farro with peas and onions?
- Spinach and Mushroom Frittata: I can never, ever spell “frittata” correctly the first time. I suppose we can also do bagels (for those who eat them) and lox? And/or a winter fruit salad? And/or maybe Carla and I will make challah again; perhaps this apple honey challah?
- Beef Stroganoff with Side Salad and Ice Cream Cake: This is my husband’s birthday dinner request. We’ll have it over egg noodles. Maybe I should do roasted green beans or steamed broccoli instead. We’ll see.
Follow Up: This was very good. HOWEVER, I messed around with the recipe a bit, so who knows if I can ever re-create it. Here’s what I did. I noticed AFTER I had measured out the requisite quarter cup of dijon that a) that was a HELLA lot of mustard and b) pretty much every other stroganoff recipe EVER calls for something in the realm of a single teaspoon of dijon. Not, you know FOUR TABLESPOONS. So I ended up putting in around 1-2 tablespoons of dijon and then fretting about it the entire rest of the time it cooked. Since I knew (belatedly) that I was going to cut the mustard (lol – I crack myself up) (although I don’t actually know what that is supposed to mean — if something doesn’t cut the mustard, it means it’s subpar, right?) I figured I would need to make up the flavor elsewhere. Other recipes called for white wine, so I deglazed the pan with the onion/garlic mixture with 1/2 cup of dry white wine. Then I also added in a generous tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. Then, because the resulting sauce STILL tasted mustardy, and I was panicking a bit, I added in an extra cup of beef stock. Then, because I was STILL panicking, I threw in a big glug of soy sauce. The end result did not taste mustardy at all, but I don’t know if it’s because of my ministrations or because it would have cooked off anyway. I also did not want to wait to do the garlic mushroom mixture the recipe called for, so I simply sautéed some mushrooms and some garlic for a while and then tossed them in with the rest of the beef and liquid for the entire eight hours it cooked. Then at the end, I used an entire 16 oz container of sour cream — and my husband added probably another quarter cup of flour to the sour cream, because the sauce was very loose — and mixed that in at the end. The end result was truly delicious.
- Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas: I am hoping my niece will eat this. Even though I don’t know if my own daughter will eat this. Sigh.
And then we’ll fill in with takeout, I guess.
What are you eating this week?
