Week 2a - Going Strong

Week two has begun, and boy am I loving it!  (Remind me of this 35 weeks from now when I'm acting like this.)  

I kicked off the week with two pasta dishes for a church dinner and a familiar lunch for myself.  The mac n' cheese with its bread cube crust was...well, do I really need to say?  Carbs layered over carbs and saturated in full-fat cheese, milk, and butter?  Yes, please.  I wasn't a huge fan of the marsala pasta, but I've only once liked mushrooms and that was when I made them à la this lady, so I wasn't anticipating a new 'shroom eye opener.

Despite the fact that it actually hasn't been that cold this winter, soups are always a staple in January.  So Monday night we enjoyed some meatball soup.  Frustration here - escarole is so prominent in the soup it's in the title, but Whole Foods didn't have any.  Now, if I mimicked the expertise shopping of my mom, I would have been flying solo and thus easily nixed the menu and planned the shopping trip around a whole new menu.  But alas, I shop with all three of the men in our household, so it's somewhat of an olympic sport to get the items I need while feeding the kids free breakfast samples.  So yea, changing menus not an option thus I resorted to kale.  Unlike Deb and another guy I adore, I'm really quite fond of kale.  So, it went very well, but still wish I had the ingredient originally called for.  I also made artichoke olive crostini, but I like olives less than mushrooms so...moving on.  I finished off the night making salted caramel chocolates (yes, you wish you could claim this about your Monday night), but had to wait til Tuesday to taste, as they would be cooling well beyond my bedtime (which, ironically, was the case for Deb when she first made these as well).

Said caramel chocolate was the first thing I ate on Tuesday.  Delicious - though obviously not boiled long enough as they were softer than fudge.  Yet I heard no complaining.  Tuesday night I had my monthly dinner with friends I've known more than half my life.  We choose a different cuisine each month, and this month's was Greek.  Deb has one recipe in her Greek section (sorry to call you out on it, Deb!).  So naturally we enjoyed lamb kebabs with tzatziki but since I consider anything with feta and/or olives "Greek" I also made a feta salsa and rosemary dill flatbread for dipping.  I've known these girls 15+ years, but still find ways to impress them.

Wednesday morning I met with a whole different group of friends.  These I have known less than 5 years but we have one key thing in common - kids.  I hosted the weekly playdate and easily catered to my vegetarian guests with Deb's tex-mex taco renditions using corn and black beans.  And since no child's lunch - or any meal for that matter - can end without something sweet, some blondies to boot.  Further tearing through the tex-mex section of Smitten Kitchen, I served up some acorn squash quesadillas for dinner with salsa verde.  Can I just tell you how I worked at a mexican restaurant for over a year and wouldn't even have imagined trying salsa verde.  But tonight I not only tried but even enjoyed it.  Got me again, Deb.

Though the initial intention was to post here once a week, I've decided - at least for this week - to split this up into two.  My family has often told me of my tendency towards annoyingly babbling eloquently elaborating.  But they're family, so they have to put up with it.  You, however, I will not subject to such verbal excess.