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Sunday, May 1, 2011

What I'm Cooking: Birthday Week

Come Tuesday, I will be living:

a) in a house with four males
b) in a house where three out of four males are teenagers
c) in a house with one other female

That female will not stop asking me for walks on the beach.



Those males will not stop asking me for food.

Therefore, this week I will be cooking (in no particular order and with the possible exception of a birthday dinner at a restaurant of the birthday boy's choosing (I'm guessing IHOP)):

Spicy grilled fish tacos.  I was looking for an interesting recipe for bbq grilled chicken and found this instead.  I will not use nasty, bottom-feeding Tilapia, but otherwise I plan to follow the recipe exactly.
Some kind of bbq chicken.  Somewhere back in the dark recesses of my mind (way back, way dark) there is a great bbq chicken recipe.  I think it involves marinating the chicken in Dr. Pepper.  Or maybe not.  I'll get back to you on that.  Whatever it ends up being, it will go great with baked beans and gloriously grilled cilantro and lime sweet potato fries.  I could tell you that I'll make a green salad to round things out, but chances are, I won't.
Chili.  Not because it's chili season, but because my friend Tamara came for a visit and brought me a packet of Cincinnati Chili mix, and because I can serve it over spaghetti ("Two Way"), or over spaghetti and topped with grated cheese ("Three Way") and it will fill cavernous stomachs and hollow limbs.

Tam and I made this last night.



And this.  

And then one more that I forgot to photograph.

A PW salad.  Last week was a doozy of a week.  I returned from the beach on Sunday, took the in-laws to the airport on Monday, laid like broccoli on Tuesday, taught sixth and eighth graders on Wednesday and second graders on Thursday, house-hunted with Tam on Friday and Saturday and died on Sunday.  I did not make a menu and I did not go to the commissary.  With the exception of this, I don't even remember what we ate.  Fortunately, it was so good and so well received that Tam and I made it again on Friday night.  When I went back to peruse the recipe, I noticed that Ree had posted another salad, which I will make at some point this week.

I'm not sure why I felt the need to tell you all of that, but I did.

Pasta.  With pesto and some form of protein.  I probably shouldn't tell you that it will be chicken, because this is becoming a(nother) chicken-heavy week, but truly, it will likely be chicken.

That's how I roll.

To shake things up, I will serve this will roasted vegetables (zucchini/yellow squash/red onion/asparagus) and a big, crusty loaf of bread.
Nachos. Back in high school, my friend Gina made the most spectacular nachos.  We, with our hummingbird metabolisms, would regularly chow down on enormous plates smothered with every delicious thing imaginable, never once pausing to wonder if our jeans would fit in the morning.  I once told her via Facebook that I had attempted to recreate them and was surprised to see the number of responses indicating she is remembered by many for her nachos.

All this time I thought she made them just for me.


That, dear friends, is it.  I realize that another day is wedged into the week somewhere, but things happen, and I rarely need seven meals in a seven day period.

I hope your week is as lovely as mine is going to be!

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