Dream with Our Eyes Open

This was actually the last weekend of the winter holidays for us: we had late Christmas with the Mr.'s family in western Maryland. And I cooked. A lot. Starting slowly on Saturday and building to a crescendo from which I am still recovering (and washing dishes)

Saturday: For the late Xmas mid-day dinner. Salad (set out salad-bar style: mixed greens with shredded radicchio, mixed grape tomatoes, grated Parmesan cheese, dried cranberries, sliced white mushrooms) with home-made vinaigrette (champagne and grapefruit-scented white balsamic vinegars with herbed olive oil) or a selection of bottled dressings (good-quality blue cheese and misc. from my sis-in-law's fridge), plus sweet potatoes roasted in their jackets ... because I had like 15 of the things in the pantry for some reason (what was I thinking? Even with Daughter home the other week, there were only 3 of us). The sweet potatoes were weirdly popular for such plain things.

Sunday: Playing with the new Instant Pot. Tunisian-style lamb stew with pumpkin (or in this case, Delicata squash) and cabbage (from the classic Time-Life "Good Cook" lamb cookbook), using CSA lamb and farmer's market squash and cabbage. Good, but I could have been a little bolder with the seasoning.

Monday: Food for the week. Chicken en casserole with shallots and bacon and mushrooms that the Mr. cooked up, another onion, chicken broth and white wine (a pinot grigio), plus the last of my Seggiano semi-dried Mediterranean Blend herbs. (I'm going to miss them.) Lamb broth from the bone left from one of the two legs of lamb my sis-in-law made for Saturday (we all love lamb), which I will later make into a hearty soup with the last of the meat trimmed off the bone. Meat sauce with CSA ground pork, farmer's market pioppino mushrooms, Cento canned and Pomi boxed tomatoes, onion, garlic, and Seggiano semi-dried basil. I bought some gluten-free pasta for me to try with this (the Mr. will have regular pasta). There's 2.5 quarts of meat sauce, so I will freeze some.

Whee.