also forgive the pic sizes - blogger is doing it, not me, i swear.
the meals:
tuna casserole with peas (wednesday 10/15): bryan made a lovely quickie version, as it we didn't didn't have mushrooms for a proper mushroom cream sauce. he added peas to the casserole. it was pretty darn delicious.
maple mustard chicken thighs with brown rice and brussel sprouts (thursday 10/16): i always look forward to bryan's brussel sprouts: par boiled, then seared in butter, with toasted breadcrumbs. they are a thing of beauty. the chicken was the star here, though. bryan used whipped maple from a local maple farm, and whole grain mustard. it was so well flavored, and the glaze got all carmelized (which always makes me want to lick out the dish).
oven roast with honey glazed white carrots, squash fries, and sweet potato fries (saturday 10/18): bryan loves a good oven roast, and i had been thinking about squash and sweet potato fries. i wanted to do something simple with the roast, so i made a combination of worcestershire, red wine, salt, pepper, garlic, and fresh thyme in the mini food processor, cut slits into the roast, and stuffed this mixture in. i seared the roast in the dutch oven, then rubbed the remaining stuffing over the top, added red wine to the pot, and let it roast. i made a pan sauce by straining the liquid in the pot and reducing it. everything was a hit. oliver LOVED the sweet potato fries!
sausage en croute, marinated sausage salad, sauteed spinach, and potato pancakes (sunday 10/19): oh my, this was a belly stuffer. i wanted to make a german sunday supper so we could try out my homemade sauerkraut, though in the end we forgot to serve it. i pulled out our German Milwaukee: It's History- It's Recipes cookbook, and found a lot of recipes that looked great! the sausage salad was seared knackwurst with emmanthaler and tomatoes, and a vinagrette with thyme, gherkins, and onions. it may seem like overkill to have two kinds of sausage in one meal, but that notion is incorrect. the recipe for the entree called for wild boar sausage, which i was unable to find on short notice (but don't believe i didn't try). we substituted a pork hungarian sausage from the outpost instead, 
which did rather nicely. i made a cream duxelle with button mushrooms, thyme, shallots, sherry, and heavy cream, which made its way into puff pastry along with the sausages. i served those over potato pancakes, with wilted spinach on the side (i was worried we wouldn't have enough food, silly me). everything was very good. the sausage en croute will definitely be a keeper going forward. for dessert, i served baked apples. after such a hearty meal, they seemed like the perfect fall dessert. no one was really all that hungry, but we ate them anyways.
mushroom swiss burgers and candy striped beets (monday 10/20): hamburgers seem to be a recurring player in our weekly menus. of course, if you've ever had one of bryan's hamburgers, you'd know why. a perfect excuse to use up the mushrooms and emmanthaler.
spaghetti (tuesday 10/21): i made a crock pot spaghetti sauce, so that we would have an easy dinner. bryan made garlic toasts to go along - which it turns out oliver LOVES! he kept trying to get at them, so i finally handed one over, thinking he would not like he strong garlic flavor or hard texture at all, but the kid can't get enough of those. they've become a common snack of his!
shrimp alfredo (wednesday 10/22): bryan didn't realize i was getting him to eat pasta 2 days in a row until it was too late. mu ha!
pan broiled sirlion steak with warmed french breakfast radishes, squash, and tater tots (thursday 10/23): what can i say, it was delicious. oliver chowed down on the steak (good boy) and of course loved the tater tots as well.
steak salad (friday 10/24): bryan warmed and sliced the left over sirlion steak, and served that over a bed of mixed greens with blanched white carrots, radishes, tomatoes, and home made croutons. bryan had bleu cheese dressing, while i had caeser. i was craving salad all day, so that worked out perfectly.cowboy spaghetti (saturday 10/25): yes, i know whose recipe that is, and yes, i knew that before i made it, but i made it anyways. i did
make a few changes to it, such as omitting the onion, more bacon, more scallions, no hot sauce, and a local raw milk monterrey jack instead of cheddar. i also used a curly pasta rather than spaghetti, since it's easier for oliver to handle. this one was a big hit with everyone. oliver ate *3* helpings. it was kind of like spaghetti, but different, and easy, so it's definitely a keeper. and it just goes, once again, to prove what they say - bacon DOES make it better. i did forget to take a picture before we all started eating, so instead you get to see oliver enjoying his.last night for dinner we went to mom & dad's, where dad had smoked a pork butt. completely forgot to take pictures! but it turned out delicious!
the deeds:
saturday the 18th was errand day, as usual. in our never dying quest to eat better, we checked out trader joe's. i had been a few times before, but bryan never had. the upside to trader joe's is that the majority of the items are all natural and/or organic; the downside is that none of it is local. but, we wanted to see if there were any items we'd rather get there than at the outpost. surprisingly, prices were comparable (we had expected it to be cheaper). there are a few things there that we'll probably get, but i think we'll end up sticking to the majority of our shopping at the outpost. as we were checking out, i left bryan and oliver in line to grab something, and as i was walking back to the register i could hear oliver YELLING. turns out, they had given him his very first helium balloon ever, and he was about 30 seconds away from having an excitement induced coronary. it was SO FREAKING CUTE. in the car, he was hugging the balloon, talking to it. it most definitely made his whole day.bryan cut down the basil tree that was growing in our back yard (seriously, it was starting to grow bark):
some random pics from the last week:
in case you weren't aware, green beans are the new hotness in hair styling:
chillin' with ollie & ally:
oliver took 3 steps last friday! i was picking him up from day care, and the kids were playing in the dirt. oliver, of course, wanted to eat the dirt, so we pulled him away. while rachel ran inside to get something to wipe the dirt off him, he stood holding onto a lawn chair and staring at the pot of dirt. then, just like that, he let go and walked to it! i don't think he realized he was doing it. he has gotten a little bolder around the house, taking a small step here and there, but no consecutive steps again yet. now that he's done it once, though, i'm sure it will take him no time to be off and running.we laid low this past weekend, running a few errands (to buy oliver's birthday present!), and getting hair cuts for the boys yesterday. oliver's first hair cut!! he was very well behaved, and while i think the bangs ended up a little short, he looks so adorable it's ridiculous (as usual). he looks less like a baby and more like a big kid!
bunch of new pictures in the october gallery.
dad took a few (148) pictures of oliver yesterday to serve as his 1 year photos. gosh, i have a cute baby. ;) we have a disc of all the pictures and will be uploading a select few, so i'll be sure to post some.
bill & linda fly into town on thursday for the birthday weekend bonanza. oliver's birthday is friday, bill's is saturday, and mom's is sunday! bryan and i have friday off, though we're still going to send oliver off to day care (being the mean, uncaring parents that we are). bryan will try to get some things done around the house, and i've got a few errands to run in prep for oliver's party on sunday. we do plan to start out the day right, however, by celebrating making it through the first year - there's a bottle of champagne for mimosas chilling in the fridge already!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment