menu of the week

Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Okay, there's no chicken on the menu this week, I just felt like saying that. The lovely spring weather we were having last week doesn't seem like it wants to stay, so I was glad to make a few of these cozy meals on the cooler days. 

hearty greens soup - I snipped this recipe from a Whole Foods flyer about Parmigiano and I have to say I'm glad I did. Some things I did differently - used a can of kitchen ready tomatoes because I forgot to buy actual tomatoes, used only kale since I had an abundance of it, and used a whole pound of pasta. I have an unreasonable aversion to using anything other than a pound (or more) of pasta in any recipe and even though I told myself I was going to follow the instructions this time my arm just wouldn't stop pouring those bow ties into the pot. Oops. The soup was delicious anyway, if a little dry. I added some water when I reheated it the next day for lunch and everything was just fine. Oh, and I left the cheese rind in because it's too good to take out and discard. I totally ate it.

mushroom and gruyere tarts - I think we all know how much I love mushrooms by now and Matt is starting to come around. I mean, he has to when I make things like mushroom tarts or else he'll be eating toast for dinner instead. These tarts were very easy to put together. My only problem was not taking the puff pastry out of the freezer early enough so I ended up kind of mangling it since it wasn't thoroughly thawed but I needed to unroll it. Don't make the same mistake.

baja fish tacos - This was the first time I had ever made fish tacos and the entire time we were eating them I kept telling Matt how good they were and that I was surprised how much I liked them. Score one for fish tacos! I prepared the fish (more hake that I froze when Whole Food had that sale a couple weeks ago) and then created a salad of sorts with the cabbage and cilantro and dressed it with extra virgin olive oil, lime juice, and salt & pepper. I piled chopped mango and avocado on my tacos and Matt stuffed his with the salad. Ezra liked dipping pieces of fish in sour cream. I'm pretty sure he thought it was yogurt, but better. I used these taco shells.

baked camembert pasta - Jamie Oliver can do no wrong when it comes to cooking, at least not that I can see. He had me at 'camembert.' However, I couldn't find camembert in a little wooden box so I bought a wedge and heated it on top of parchment paper. Yes, it melted all over the place and yes, it was still delicious.

sweet potato veggie burgers - Sweet potato burgers sound like a good idea and while they are tasty they are also extremely sticky and fall apart at all stages - while being formed, while being fried, while being removed from the pan, while being sandwiched between two halves of a bun, and while being eaten. That said, I would make them again because they were so stinkin' good. In fact, I would double the recipe next time. It seems I do that a lot.