What’s for Dinner? – Week Starting 7 July 2018

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People are forever asking how I manage everything with such a busy schedule. I love to cook, but I don’t always have time to do so in the manner I would like. This weekly journal is a way to keep it real and show that while my intentions are good, sometimes life and all of its activities get in the way of serving a delicious, home-cooked meal and that it is perfectly okay.

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Saturday: Whew. It has been a crazy month, culminating in a week that left me completely off my game and barely able to stay awake and cognizant. So when Jim started planning to break out his new smoker for Saturday, I was perfectly okay with it. In fact, I wanted to have a nice meal for the first time in forever and celebrate being done for a while. While Jim was smoking a pork shoulder for pulled pork, I went southern cuisine with macaroni and cheese, baked beans, deviled eggs, pickles, sugar snap peas, and baby carrots. Then we ended the night with cherry crisp and frosted brownies. The smoker was a success, as was the rest of the meal.
Sunday: With a renewed vigor for all things domestic, and time to indulge that vigor, I went with Black and Blue Cajun Burgers for dinner tonight. Unfortunately, my careful ingredient gathering and prep work were for naught when Jim let the grill get too hot and charred the burgers into pucks. Thankfully, the meat was still juicy, and the Cajun seasonings I used in the meat made them plenty flavorful. Personally, I adore the blue cheese sauce and the chips. I would make that sauce as a dressing any day.
Monday: As proof that we are never really done with dance, Holly started her summer dance schedule tonight. The schedule this summer is odd in that there are only two nights where we can drop her off and pick her up a few hours later. With only one hour of dance tonight, I opted to stay at the studio and instructed Connor to prepare dinner. His decision was to force everyone to eat leftovers. It was not what I had planned, but it did clear up space in my fridge.
Tuesday: Holly had classes until 9 PM tonight, so she ate dinner before she left the house. This meant I could make something with meat for the rest of us. I had been in the mood for something with buffalo wing sauce and pasta for a while and took the opportunity to try it. Connor loved the dish. Unfortunately, I ended up using extra hot buffalo sauce and could barely eat it. I would definitely make this again given how easy it is to pull together, except I would use the mildest buffalo sauce I can find. Everyone else can always add something hotter to their own plate.
Wednesday: Holly’s dance schedule tonight made the boys in charge of dinner again. Their decision was yet again to eat leftovers; since they ate them all, Holly and I picked up subs from Subway. Not necessarily what I had in mind when I told the boys they were in charge of dinner.
Thursday: In summer, I like to make a large batch of my special chicken salad. It is a recipe I got from working in a cafe many, many years ago. It is the only kind of chicken salad I will eat, and I keep the recipe a secret because I feel it is that good. This week and the weather being so hot called for said chicken salad. I think of it as comfort food for the summer.
Friday: There is something about Fridays that make me not want to cook or even reheat anything we may have in the fridge. Jim was not interested in going anywhere nor was he hungry, so it left the kids and me to figure out what we want. Holly had been craving Chipotle lately, so that is where I made Connor go to pick up dinner (I paid). Once home, Holly took one bite of her burrito and spit it out. Her vegetarian burrito with the sofritos was instead made with chicken.
She did not want me to go back, so I called. She may not have gotten her burrito, but we are getting free coupons out of there mistake. It is the least they could do. I shutter to think of what could have happened had she had any sort of food allergy…