Food Adventures

As I mentioned in my first post, I am trying to do better at preparing dinners for my family. Not only am I trying to plan meals in advance, I am also trying out new recipes. Most of my new recipes have come from a magazine which I have subscribed to for almost two years now, Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. I like that most of the recipes use good-quality ingredients without requiring things that are not easily found in the grocery stores around here. And the recipes are ones that we can fix and eat "every day." I'm not into trying bizarre-I mean "exotic"- recipes.

As I was unloading my groceries from a recent shopping trip this week I noticed how the food that I keep on hand in my pantry has changed. I am using less of the items I used to keep a large supply of: jarred spaghetti sauce, cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, canned corn, canned green beans, and canned ready-to-eat soups. While I still use those items from time to time, I find that I am more likely to use fresher ingredients for my recipes as well as fresh vegetables for side dishes than before. I have a long way to go before I only use good-for-you ingredients, but I can see the progress I have made.


This evening Brett paid me a nice compliment on our dinner. It wasn't anything special - in fact, it was essentially leftovers. A few weeks ago, I made a new recipe (from Everyday Food) called Eggplant Bolognese. It is a tomato-based sauce served over pasta. The recipe made quite a bit, so I froze half of it for later (tonight's meal). When I originally told Brett that I would be making this recipe he wasn't thrilled - it sounded gross. However, tonight he said that it was probably his favorite spaghetti sauce ever - and it's full of vegetables. He recommended that I make a double batch and freeze it for some good, fast dinners. I know that my mom used to do that, but from the time that I was cooking for myself it was always easier to just grab a jar of Ragu. But now I am inspired. Brett's only suggestion was that I change the name to something like, "Mom's Awesome Spaghetti Sauce" - what a compliment!


Now that I have been doing better at dinners, I decided it was finally time for me to figure out how to make a pie crust from scratch (successfully). I made my second attempt last week (my first attempt was not the greatest), and even made a lemon meringue for the first time. This picture might not look that impressive, but I thought my mini-pies were quite tasty. I may even be ready to contribute a homemade pie for Thanksgiving!