So that other site I had with some other folks is closing down because we all have too many blogs. Can you imagine? Too many blogs? Heh, yeah. We had too many. One less means I’m back! And I know you’re hopping with excitement. Here’s the last entry I did at WhippedOut all about...what I had for DINNER. Can you stand the excitement?

Seriously, you need to try this recipe. I am totally having it for lunch.

I made Thai Pork Lettuce Wraps and garlic brown rice for dinner and OH HOLY THAILAND MOSES was it good.

First, the wraps: they came from America’s Test Kitchen (free registration required) and they were amazing. Every crazy step in that recipe, from toasting rice and making powder out of it to freezing chunks of pork tenderloin to grind up in the food processor, worked perfectly.

A word of warning: do not lean in to get a whiff of the pork as it cooks in the fish sauce and chicken broth. This is not a smell you will enjoy. But once the mixture is done, with the lime juice, fresh herbs, and shallots, oh, it’s wonderful. Especially all wrapped up in a lettuce leaf. So do not lean over that steamy bubbly pan and breathe in. You will regret it.

Second: brown rice! I put a cup of brown rice in a strainer, rinsed it, then put it in the rice cooker with 2.25 cups of water and two smashed garlic cloves. Ohhhhh, yummy, especially when soaking up the juice that leaked from the lettuce leaves as we ate them.

So - if you’re looking for a fresh tasting and delicious summer dinner, have at it. SO good. Yum.

And I’ll be back with regularly scheduled updates. Any questions or random musings you want me to address? Bring it on.

Things I’m curious about but don’t have time to investigate:

1. Glee
2. Castle
3. Any reality show, particularly Amazing Race
4. Ceviche (recipes and making it for myself - I’ll eat it any time!)
5. Heirloom tomatoes
6. Fingerling potatoes (growing them. Eating them is no problem.)
7. Why I like peas when other people cook them.

I made these on Sunday night in about 25 minutes total. They are amazing, and I found the recipe here. Any cookbook needs you have, look to Cooks Illustrated. No question.

Here’s another tip on making your food budget work for your dinner eating needs. I hate leftovers. HATE leftovers. Think they taste oogey no matter how they are warmed up. But - there are some ways to reuse food in new recipes so that you can pretend you’re not eating leftovers (trust me - this works for me. Just go with it).

For example: when you make pasta sauce, even if you’re doctoring sauce from a jar with additional garlic and caramelized onions, make extra. Save that in a container, and you can use it to make miniature lasagna rollups (put sauce and cheese in a lasagna noodle, roll it up, top with sauce/cheese, bake. Done!) or use it as part of a sauce for baked chicken. Red sauce is your friend. You can put it on bagels (I kid).

My goal when I look in my fridge is to have at least two options of what to make for dinner that are easy and yummy so that I don’t turn around and pick up the phone to order takeout. That’s really it - don’t challenge my imagination when I’m hungry and don’t order in. We’re trying to order in only twice a month, and I like to save it for Friday night family dinners. Boston Market is my friend (especially with coupons). So right now our dinner options are:

1. leftover pot roast from Friday night last week (about at the end of it’s use-by date) which I can thin-slice or shred, mix with sauce and serve over noodles.
2. leftover red sauce with meat which I can put on a bagel (I kid).
3. chicken sausage (garlic basil flavor) on which I can put that bagel - sorry, the red sauce
4. leftover grilled turkey breast from Sunday night (yum) with biscuits (homemade 20 min. recipe), plus some green vegetables for a side

There. Easy.

Also, a word about Boston Market: it is my friend. It can be your friend too. I find one three-person family meal plus one extra side will feed us for dinner, then two lunches over the weekend for $22, less if I have a coupon. If we get the whole chicken meal but request all white meat, we get breasts and wings, plus I get mac & cheese, potatoes and gravy, corn, and a salad. I buy the corn as an “extra” side and right now it’s $2 additional. So there’s Friday night (shabbat) dinner: chicken with awesomeness. Then Saturday lunch for the boys: any and all of the above left over, and the same for Hubby and me. One meal goes a long way - especially that side of corn. It lasts for damn ever. It’s like a bottomless pit of corn. The salad isn’t bad either, but I tend to doctor it by chopping up other stuff that we like and tossing it in the container it comes in. Again -bottomless pit of green stuff that lasts forever.

Tonight, in an effort to USE the kitchen for FOOD PREP, I’m making sloppy joes for dinner with a recipe from my 30 minute best recipe cookbook, and as usual, we eat together as a family for shabbat. I love Fridays.

I’m also hoping the DVD I ordered arrives and that Freebird is in a happy mellow mood and can stay up for a special Movie Night and watch with us. Baba’s participation depends on how tired he is. Likely he will head to bed at his usual 730 or 8. He’s a sleepy moose by 8pm most nights. And he loooooves to sleep.

I hope we have a peaceful, happy weekend. I could use the quiet. 

Perhaps you are curious what we’re having for supper. I’m always curious what other people are making.

Tonight the boys had leftover mac & cheese from Boston Market, popcorn, chicken, peas & carrots, graham crackers, and oreos for dessert (1 for Baba, 2 for Freebird). By the time Baba finishes an Oreo, it is all over his face, making us look like unintentional racists every time we give him a cookie.

For us, we’re having Cook’s Illustrated’s drop biscuits - this is a rare thing, a CI recipe available online for free. Usually you have to pay or do a free trial. And we’re having red bean, barley and sausage soup, with sweet Italian chicken sausage. This is one of my favorite recipes from the cookbook Saved by Soup (saved from what, I have no idea) and it’s delicious. I think it might be the only recipe I make from the book, too (Bad Morag).

Tomorrow, we’re having whole wheat pizza, and Monday night for Rosh Hashana with the Fairy Godmothers: beer-up-the-butt chicken. Two of them. With beer up their round chickeny asses. Yummmmmy.