THIS WEEK ON A STOVE NEAR ME

It really feels like autumn now, though the temperatures have been swinging a little pendulum-style. I really need to remember things like sunshine in the morning does not always mean warm, and sometimes coats are a good idea. Yesterday I was fighting a shivery chin as I crossed the street to my building and pushed the revolving door, even though I had a turtleneck sweater on. Yes, coats are useful.

So, soup was on my mind as I planned this week's menu over the weekend. Plus: tacos, always tacos or chili (or, in this week's case, both!).

I made the Hungarian Ham & Bean soup this weekend, and it's worth the time. It makes a huge amount, and is also yummy. I have found there to be a plethora of smoked pork product choices available here, and decided to make it a little easier by buying some "ham pieces for flavoring" which were -- you guessed it! -- irregularly sliced pieces of ham, probably from making more uniform slices. I subbed that for the ham hock, though I'm sure that would be more authentic and even yummier. However, I'm happy with it as it was and would reuse the ham pieces.

Aside from the recipes above, the old standby ones like tacos, chicken with red beans and rice (leftover chicken to go in chili), and spaghetti with meatballs round out the week. Lame, but comforting. :)

THIS WEEK ON A STOVE NEAR ME

This week's menu is a couple of stand-bys, a couple of new dishes, and a planned night of food brought in, as I won't be home until late Friday. It's the first of the month, and a busy one at work. But hey, at least I'll be in jeans, though I may be only an hour late and I could also be as many as three hours late. So, that night, yeah, I'm telling everyone to pick up some dinner and -- hopefully! -- save some for me. (Maybe a beer, too?)






I made the chicken-potpie pasta tonight and we really liked it. The recipe, to which I added about half a teaspoon of thyme and some mushrooms, made a large amount, and we all had seconds. I claimed the leftovers for my lunch tomorrow (and maybe the next day, too, since I doubt I'll be wolfing down the ~4 cups that were leftover in one sitting. (Woof.) I make the Marcella Hazan sauce to go with sausages and peppers, and then the leftover sauce will be in chili I'm making another night--no recipe for that; it's one of those things you just, ya know... make! Chili or spaghetti sauce is my traditional Halloween dinner, which is easy to make to have either before or after candy-begging time is over. Paul will probably pick up fried chicken, which is Carter's favorite for Friday, and I've been asked to make "breakfast for dinner" for Wednesday night dinner, which is also Carter's EIGHTH birthday! (He wants me to make "a ton" of sausage for him--breakfast sausage, one of his favorites.

Hope it's a great week on your stove!

THIS WEEK ON A STOVE NEAR ME

It's been kind of gray--okay, it's been super gray here. Rainy. Bleh. So, I've been wanting soup... and tacos are a given. (almost always tacos, mmm.)

I made the chicken soup last night and added... KALE. (I put kale in half our meals. Hey, it's nutritious and in season!) The fried rice was never made last week so it's been pushed forward to this week. I made it once before, or as close a facsimile as I usually make, since I tend to think of recipes that are not pastry/baking as a general guideline, and the rice is yummy. I have a couple of salmon filet left from a large package of frozen salmon, which will be good for soup, and I may add some shredded cooked chicken to the bean/posole soup... The stroganoff is a favorite of Bunny's.

COMING THIS WEEK TO A STOVE NEAR ME

Along with some regulars (hello, tacos... I ♥ you), I have some pinned recipes in the works.





The Marcella Hazan sauce will be with sausages & peppers... it's the best sauce EVER. EVER!

COMING TO A STOVE NEAR ME THIS WEEK

I really do make the recipes I pin! These are the ones on for this week.

FEEDING AN OBSESSION

I have muscadines on the brain. Everywhere I go here I see them in the store. I even came across an arbor full of them at Mordecai House.

Next summer I’m going to be all over these bad boys. Even though it was created at Hacker Dojo, the place my husband frequented when we lived in Silicon Valley, I resisted Pinterest for the first many months or so it was out—who needs another social network to keep up with, I thought... Then, I relented, and now I ♥ it. No more bookmarks! I’ve been using Pinterest for a long time, I guess, and I use it mainly for recipes, which I used to bookmark or print out, and I no longer have to dash back and forth to the computer to look at the recipe, since: tablet app.

It’s also really east to fall down the rabbit hole of finding more-more-more on nearly anything my brain can’t stop thinking about, like muscadines. A couple of keystrokes and clicks and—voila, more ways to use them than I’d ever considered possible.

Here are a few pins I had to add to the two thousand I have at this time. (Yikes, that seems like a lot, doesn’t it? But, I really do make a lot of the recipes I pin, really, I do…)




If these are half as good as they look, we're in for some treats!