"WeeknightDinner" news and stories

Despite all the food reading and writing I do, I often find myself falling back on the same five or six dinners. When I get home from work, unless I've planned ahead to try something new, the combination of hunger and weariness drive me to make the things I know by heart. These include things like turkey burgers, omelets, big salads with grilled chicken or a can of tuna, quesadillas, beans and rice with salsa and quick pasta dishes.

Tuesday night, it looked like it was going to be another one of those nights, with more of the same. On auto-pilot, I grabbed a pound of ground beef* from the freezer and set it in a bowl of water to defrost. I cut up some root veggies to roast and chopped up a bit of onion real fine to go in the meat. Instead of forming the meat into regular sized burgers, I decided to go with mini patties, making my very own sliders. It was a little adjustment, but it made for a far more interesting meal. Topped with some local blue cheese, thinly shaved onion, bright red tomato and a ruffled lettuce leaf and sandwiched between two toasted sourdough rounds, it was the best things I've cooked all week.

*One of the smartest things I've done in a long time is join a buying club for meat and poultry. Once a month I place an order and a week later, I pick up a bag of neatly packaged frozen beef, chicken, pork and turkey at a friend's house. It's all local, organic, grass fed/finished and means that there's always something wonderful in the freezer for dinner. It has helped immeasurably with the 'What to do for dinner?' question.

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Earlier this week, Scott and I were sitting around, talking about what the week looked like for us and when we'd both be home for dinner. Once we realized we'd both be around on Wednesday, I started brainstorming out loud, ruminating on the pound of grass-finished ground beef I had in the fridge. I mentioned that I was thinking it would be good to scramble it with some veggies, maybe some beans and a can or two of tomatoes. Scott looked at me and said, "You do realize that you're talking about making chili, right?" I was momentarily crushed, as I realized that what I was considering wasn't at all original (silly in so many ways, I know). Once I got over my disappointment, I perked up, realizing that I could still take this pot of chili in any direction I wanted.

When I got home from work, I started chopping, sauting and stirring, cooking by feel without any sort of guide besides what I had in my kitchen. It turned out fantastically well and there was enough in the pot to feed us for two nights (I do love cooking once and eating twice)! I was particularly proud that I got the chard in there, because it meant that I got my nightly green vegetable in without using another pot or bowl.

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