Week #6: April 12-15, 2010.

This week seems like it was mostly about mush. I need to work on making my food more aesthetically pleasing.

Night #17: Monday, April 12. Mini-polenta pizzas and caprese salad. Well, I didn't so much make the caprese salad as just sent the tomatoes, cheese and basil with my mother and let her cut it all up at home. Ha...by the time she got there, I was so exhausted from trying to figure out the polenta business that I just sort of threw everything at her and said "bon freaking appetit!" The polenta did not at all turn out like I had hoped...it was originally supposed to be one big polenta pizza. I cooked it just as I've cooked it before, but it did NOT stiffen, so I made an emergency run back up to the store to see what I could find. All I found was premade polenta in a tube, which I thought I could just roll out into a crust and make a big pizza. Um, no. This polenta was meant to be cut one way, and that was sliced. So, I ended up making slices, and putting pesto, tomatoes, and onions or peppers on them, and then baking them in the oven for a bit. They weren't the best thing ever...but it was dinner. I think I'm going to do a bit more research on polenta, and make sure I'm using the right stuff. Also...vegetable stock is maybe not the best base for polenta. It adds a little too much flavoring, especially when you're putting other things on the polenta.

Night #18: Tuesday, April 13. Spanish potatoes and peas with pearl onions in a cream sauce. This turned out much better. The potatoes were in this sort of spicy tomato sauce with green peppers and onions...I got the wrong kind of tomatoes, I was supposed to get strained but I picked up chopped instead...so it might have turned out a little differently had I gotten the correct thing. The potatoes also took FOREVER to cook...I might have chopped them too large. Anyway, it was good, if perhaps a little more done than I usually prefer. Also, peas with pearl onions. This was fun, and a little unusual...the sauce was whipped cream (not sweetened), which gave it an interesting flavor. Jacob and I really liked it, and I think the family did too.

Night #19: Wednesday, April 14. Seared scallops, with white beans and spinach. The scallops in this meal were so awesome...I just took sea scallops, sprinkled them liberally with salt and pepper, and seared them in butter for a few minutes on each side. They were so good! The beans and spinach were all cooked in one pot, with onions and garlic...I doubled the recipe for everything, but I still didn't have enough. That's a recurring thing with me lately...especially when it comes to pot-meals, I can double the recipe and still not have enough. I guess I need to start tripling some recipes...good grief.

Night #20: Thursday, April 15. Pasta with green beans and onions, roasted eggplant with plum tomatoes and feta cheese. The pasta is an old favorite of mine...it's just pasta (previously cooked) mixed with french style green beans, onions (previously sauteed in a little butter), and cream of celery soup, with some fried onions sprinkled on top. It's kind of like a green bean casserole, but with pasta and no mushrooms. That turned out pretty good...I might have cooked it for a bit longer, but my proportions were alright. The eggplant stuff ended up kind of mushy...I understand that that's how eggplant is supposed to look, but it was sort of blah. Also very bitter...I think salt beforehand might have helped with that. I'll have to do some research before I try it again.

Overall, good week. Next week, I think I'll try some simpler things...like vegetables without anything mixed in. I'll have to look for recipes.

G'night! : )