What We're Eating 10/3-10/9

I stopped typing our weekly menus up and ever since that moment I've felt lost. Okay, that isn't quite the truth, but something about me feels lost. It's nothing terrible and no doubt it's related to this not quite post pandemic world we occupy now, but I don't like this anxiety that swirls around inside. Some days it means that I panic when I see people I know and like. The panic manifests itself in heat and sweat. I stand there talking in an impossibly high voice or not talking at all. If you touch me, you'll burn. Other days I simply become paralyzed when faced with a task like making a damn mammography appointment. Then there was the day when mishap upon mishap happened. I forgot my purse at work. Our oven broke. Watts' mom's cancer returned. I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't bare to leave town to see a dear friend who I hadn't seen in ages. Plans that had been in place for more than a few months couldn't happen because I was too anxious. 

The one thing I know I can always do that calms me down though is cooking. Eating too, but cooking is almost never an overwhelming task. Sometimes on the weekend I think it's fun to have a break and eat out or get take out, but rarely do I complain about being in the kitchen. In fact, it's the place I find the most peace. Now that I'm back at my physical workplace and my commute is an hour and ten minutes round trip, I don't have quite as much time to cook as I had during the year I taught from home. I confess that I don't like not having as much time. I never forgot to defrost the chicken. I could use time at lunch to chop, slice and dice veggies.  I could even make bread. I could be extravagant because I had time. Once when she joined us for dinner my niece asked, "is this how dinner is every Wednesday?" To which my nephew, who was a frequent weeknight dinner guest, said, "Yes." Now you can often find me praying to the gods of meatloaf that it will be done before seven (when the locals really need to eat) and then cursing myself out when I realize that the reason the meat thermometer thinks the meatloaf isn't done is because it's set for celsius. Oops.

Without further ado or excuses, this is my weekly meal plan which I may or may not diverge from. One just never knows. 

Sunday: The plan was to eat leftover brats from Saturday, but then we wound up going to one of our local breweries in the afternoon and orders loaded potatoes. So then the plan became: eat potatoes, then eat brats. It worked out perfectly I think. 

Monday: I think it's a frozen pizza. And salad. To be honest, I'll probably do a frozen pizza that I know the teenage boy will eat, but then I'll take out the two frozen homemade doughs and throw other things on them. I think between shuttling back and forth to ballet that there will be enough time. 

Note: Those two frozen dough balls? I made sausage and pepper calzones with them. I repurposed the last of the slow cooked weekend brats and italianed  them up with papers from our garden and onions from Harris Teeter.

Tuesday: I have chicken thighs that need cooking. I have a bunch of limes so I'm thinking of making Garlicky Chicken Thighs with Scallions and Lime. This is the meal that kicked off what is known as "Good Chicken" in our house. I haven't made it in a while and I know the meat eaters like this one. A lot.

Note: I left the chicken out defrosting all night. I thought about cooking it anyway, but then I had visions of illness dancing in my head so I chucked it in the outside bin. I'll hopefully have time to pop into the local grocery shop just down the corner from us and grab another package. 

Wednesday: One thing I love about fall is going back to fall recipes. Since fall in the south lacks the feeling it does in the northeast, revisiting old recipes is what gives me comfort. This Spicy Butternut Squash pasta was a hit. Plus I have part of a giant butternut squash staring at me every time I walk in the kitchen. 

Thursday: I made rolls this weekend that may have been on the raw side. At least I believe that's what Paul Hollywood would have said. So I'm going to let them stale out a bit and then make a savory bread pudding. I don't know what kind yet, but I did see this one with tomatoes and goat cheese and I know I have both available. I'm wondering if I will be the only one who likes this dish so I'll probably have to make something else, but we'll see. 

Friday: I always want to celebrate when I get to Friday. Plus since I work from home on this day I want to cook big, even if I have papers to grade I can still play around the kitchen. We've been watching Only Murders in the Building and I love how Martin Short's character is obsessed with dips. Maybe this Friday will be dipped theme. The recent trend has been Italian and Indian. It'd be a change. 

Notes: Well on Thursday morning we decided we'd be wild and head to one of the local breweries where the dumpling food truck was going to be. I confess I'm sad that I live in a place where I don't have to name the dumpling food truck because there's only one. Because it's the only one, it's quite popular and we've been wanting to try it out for a while now. Sadly, when we arrived the dumpling truck was nowhere to be found. They had double booked. So we headed to Freeman's Pub and ate food nothing like dumplings.

On Friday I decided to make a Samosa Pie instead of the dips because I found making a hot water crust and filling it with something so much more comforting than grading essays. I also managed to bake an apple crumb loaf from Flora Shedden's Aran book. 

Saturday: It was a coolish rainyish day which meant the day was practically gagging for some kind of chili. Which meant I busted out my award winning classic black bean, yellow pepper and cumin chili based off of this recipe.