Monday, August 23

Braised lamb shoulders

It may look pretty, but the "lamb" tasted an awful lot like liver.  So my dinner was a peanut butter sandwich.  Michael managed to eat some of it, but I noticed he didn't save the leftovers for lunch the next day. 

Tuesday, July 27

Pork chops with a mustard and caper sauce, served with mashed potatoes and green beans

Michael's night to cook.  He followed a Cook's Illustrated recipe and I discovered I'm not really a fan of onions, capers, and mustard mixed together.  He serve the pork with mashed potatoes (instant) and green beans (frozen).  Oh well -- at least there's always ice cream.

Saturday, July 10

So it was supposed to be Michael's night to cook.  And we were supposed to have homemade ravioli.  But apparently I misunderstood what Michael meant when he asked me to take the hamburger out of the freezer.  I guess he meant now.  As a result, the hamburger was not defrosted and we ended up going out.  After a ten minute negotation process where one of us would suggest a restaurant and the other would immediately dismiss it, we settled on Hollywood Diner, just a couple miles from our house. 

I ordered their fried food platter -- chicken fingers, buffalo chicken wings, moz sticks, onion rings, with a side of fries.  Michael ordered the chicken ceasar wrap (which came with fries) and a side of moz sticks.  Both of our orders contained fries.  About seven minutes after placing our order, our waitress came back and told us they were completely out of fries.  Not exactly sure how that happens at 5:30 pm on a Saturday at a diner, but well, okay.  Michael subbed homefries for the fries and I decided to go without.  My food was tasty.  Although I wasn't surprised given that it was just fried food.  Michael's chicken ceasar wrap appeared to not contain ceasar dressing and the homefries were pretty disgusting. 

About 3/4 of the way through dinner, our waitress reappeared and told us they now had fries and asked us whether we wanted them.  I could tell Michael wasn't happy with the homefries (and really, I hadn't had enough fried food yet), so we told her, yes, we'd like a side of fries.  Putting aside the question of how they now had fries, we tried them.  Not completely fried and kind of soggy -- they obviously rushed getting them out to us.  Bummer.

Anyways, we'll probably go back again just because they have such a huge menu (last time we were there, Michael loved the spaghetti with meatballs), great hours, and are convenient, but we'll remember not to order the fries in the future.

Monday, June 21

Cucumber salad dressed with vinegar and sesame seeds; shrimp fra diavolo served with homemade rolls.  Michael's night to cook (of course).  Appetizer course was the cucumber salad.  It was good, but a little vinegary.

The dinner rolls, as always, were excellent.

Michael cooked the pasta in a microwave pasta cooking plastic box, which was a gift from his mom.  I was a little skeptical about cooking pasta in the microwave, but it worked surprisingly well.  The pasta came out perfectly cooked. 

For the shrimp, Michael flambed it.  Not to worry, I was standing nearby with a fire extinguisher. 

Although the finished product looked great and the shrimp were cooked very well, Michael added a little (lot?) too many crushed red pepper flakes and the dish was very, very, very diavolo.  So much so, unfortunately, I need to push this meal in the "can't all be winners" category. 

Tuesday, June 15

BBQ Pork and Potato Salad

Michael's night to cook.  He attempted to tried to recreate my menu of Sunday, May 9 with his own little twist.  Apparently I neglected to tell him that he needed to cook the pork longer than the 1 hour on the recipe.  (Does he even read the blog?)  I also forgot to tell him that the potato salad should be made with yellow mustard, not Dijon mustard.  Who uses Dijon mustard in potato salad?  I thought yellow mustard was a given.  His versions turned out okay, but I like mine better. 

Thursday, June 3

Crockpot scalloped potatoes and ham

My night to cook.  I had planned on going to the concert in the Town Square of our Fair City, but the rain changed our plans.  I had prepared the ham and potatoes in the crockpot so we could either eat quickly and go or take it with us.  I liked dinner -- Michael's comment was "well, they can't all be winners."  I suspect that means he didn't like it.  Oh well.  I was going to serve it with a salad, but Michael was very hungry and he gets a little pokey with his fork if you don't get him food fast enough.  For dessert, we finished up the homemade strawberry ice cream I made on Monday.  And the cake.