FOOD

This has been a week and a half coming...  I've been meaning to catch up on babbling about all the food my friends and I have made over the past couple of weeks.

Friday, January 16th

"Smushed" Potatoes, Veggies, Chicken.  M1 had a bunch of people over for "board" games - love them.  She made a variety of things, including "smushed" potatoes, which were my favourites.  She doesn't own a masher, so they had larger chunks than most mashed potatoes - the perfect combination of mashed potatoes and roasted potatoes!  It was a lovely dinner, and a lovely evening.

(We played Apples to Apples and Celebrity.  Both great games for more than six people.  It's just so hard to get six people crowded around a board...)

Sunday, January 18th

Garlic Bread, Pasta [Right.]  M3 made some bow tie pasta with vegetables (mushrooms and peppers, I think.)  And garlic bread, my favourite pasta side.

Bow ties are also one of my top pasta shapes.  Granted, there's a time for everything, but bow ties are almost always welcome.  I've never been a spaghetti person.  Holy moley.  There are a lot of pasta shapes.  Oh, bow ties are officially "Farfalle."  Other favourites are Rotini (spiral, for pasta salads,) Ziti, Ditalini (for Minestrone) and, well, lots of stuffed pastas (Ravioli, Gnocchi, Tortellini, etc.)

End feelings on pasta shapes.

Tuesday, January 20th

Tortilla Soup [Left,] Quesadillas, Pinwheels [Below right.]  My night!  Also, Inauguration Day!  Yay!  Possibly because I wanted a margarita, we ended up with Mexican.  I made Tortilla Soup, which was lovely, if I do say so myself.  (And I do.)  Quesadillas were simple enough - cheese, hot peppers, black beans and corn.

Dessert...  I made these "really healthy" Cream Cheese Chocolate Chunk Pastries.  Nevermind the fact that pastry sheets are absolutely terrible for you.  They taste delicious!

I would suggest a few changes to the soup.  Less oil!  (Or a sheen results over the top of the soup.)  Someone in the reviews suggested petite diced tomatoes - I was a huge fan.  Frozen corn - because I hate canned vegetables.  Two cans of green chilis (as three is just a bit much.)  Now...  Go!

Wednesday, January 21st

BBQ, Fries.  M1 made BBQ chicken for the omnivores, and a BBQ veggie burger for me.  And my two favourite versions of French fries - seasoned and curly and sweet potato.  Yum!

Sunday, January 25th

Polenta-Stuffed Peppers [Right.]  These were awesome.  They looked so pretty!  I just spent a few moments looking for the recipe M3 used for these, but couldn't find it...  Also, I had no idea what polenta was; that shall not be an issue going forward.

Another great discovery here was Newman's Own Roast Garlic Balsamic Dressing.  I'm not big on many condiments, including most salad dressings, but this one was great!

Tuesday, January 27th

Risotto Trio.  I made three risottos, which was a bit of a juggling act, as risottos take a fair amount of hands-on work.  (The "trio" part of it was planned without thinking.  It worked out in the end.)

I was most excited about the Mushroom Risotto, but it turned out to be my least favourite of the three.  It wasn't bad, just the other two were better.  My favourite was the Butternut Squash Risotto.  I made a few alterations (from the reviews.)  I roasted to squash, with some nutmug and salt - for 20 minutes at 350.  (I'm not big into onions, so I probably used only a quarter.)  Obviously, I used vegetable stock; and I used only 2.5 to 3 cups of it - nowhere close to five cups!  It. Was. Awesome.  Lastly, there was a Sun-Dried Tomato Risotto.  Here, again, vegetable stock and less onion.

And...  Now we're up to date.  With what I've been eating, at least!  It seems that family dinners are taking a bit of a hiatus for a week - M3 is off to Mexico, and M1 is heading to my home state for the weekend.  However, since the Super Bowl is on Sunday, I can see loads of FRIED in my near future!