What's for Dinner? November!

Onion soup au gratin...

the onions are simmering on the stove and my garlic~parmesan croutons just came out of the oven....in fact, I've already burnt my tongue eating one they're just too tasty to resist!

My mother is cooking an early Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, since my dad will head to TN for deer season and not be home on the 23...my sister usually splits Thanksgiving between BOTH her sets of in-laws...her DH has "mom and step-dad" and "dad and step mom"...all of whom are wonderful and often socialize...have no problems attending Dnieces parties etc. It's nice....but does require additional time to "visit" everyone on holidays.

Anyway...I don't have too cook Sunday dinner this week!

Lenora

With mashed potatoes and gravy. Salad. Possibly broccoli. Ice cream or tapioca pudding for dessert. mmm.

Chicken carcass goes in the pot for stock overnight and tomorrow we may have faux pho.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

Ugh, this has been a bad depression week. Not much good is getting cooked around here. We're ordering Jimmy John's!

Recent good meals:
B.nut squash risotto with cannellini beans
B. squash quesadillas the next lunch
Shaunbalya (had some "base" for this in the freezer, luckily)
Homemade pizza with turkey pepperoni

Tomorrow, probably chicken noodle soup (stock in freezer, soup veggies purchased already cut, just gotta cook the chicken) and rolls

We are getting in the soup and casserole mode -- and of course I am thinking about T.giving! I hate to tinker with perfection, I stick to the basics and branch out in the area of green veggies. And I might bake 2 pumpkin pies, one "pure," one with candied pecans and toffee.

Shaun
www.homeschoolblogger.com/shaunms

I can't be bothd to do anything today but I almost feel like going into a cooking frenzy... almost! Glad I don't have to worry about Thanksgiving though. We're on roast beef (practice run for Christmas Day), roast taters, cauliflower puree, probably yorkshire puds, definitely gravy and some other kinds of veggies as yet unplanned. And I may get round to using the rhubarb I froze months back and the bramley apple I bought a couple of days ago to make a crumble. Maybe. The asparagus soup lunch is off, because the asparagus got tired of waiting around for me! May just skip lunch and go straight into piggy heaven with dinner and pudding.

Dinners are very hit and miss these days, and usually it's easy stuff (pie, chips, peas and gravy for example) or if I go back to the office after collecting the kids from school it's more often eating out or takeaway. I think we do that even more than when we were in Singapore. We had the unusual experience of being the only people in a Chinese restaurant last Thursday - plenty of takeaways but no midweek dining out apparently.

Lynn - are you baking or boiling your ham? I haven't had the guts yet to bake, but I've found a couple of tricks to a juicy boiled ham. I throw in either a pricked orange or apple juice (and some black peppercorns), then a little neglect goes a long way if you leave the ham for a couple of hours after boiling before taking it ut of the cooking liquid - it seems to soak back up a lot of the liquid. I might try baking one this year. Maybe.

Kerri.

DH might whine and claim he's not full enough, but he'll just have to live with it because I want fish. We'll also have peas, and I'll make a huge pile of oven fries, possibly with cheese on top to alleviate the pain of eating fish.

I was quite pleased with the chicken soup. The pre-chopped soup veggies are a terriifc convenience food, though the parsnips were a little strong -- whenever you got one they would change the whole flavor, not in a bad way, but who wants to be surprised when eating chicken noodle soup and crescent rolls.

I sauteed some turmeric with the veggies just before adding the stock (mostly homemade!) -- good immune booster, plus it really added a nice flavor. You could hardly pick it out, even knowing it was there, but the broth just seemed to have more depth. Definitely something I'll continue to do with my chicken noodle soup!

Shaun
www.homeschoolblogger.com/shaunms

I had a 15min window between collecting one child and going back out to collect the other one so I made a quick nourishing soup - tomato, lentil and bacon. We had to dash back out to the office so I knew having half of dinner out of the way ready would be a lifesaver.

I'm planning veg and other details for Christmas dinner so weekday meals are taking a back seat.

Kerri.

Last night was left-over chicken, gravy, rice and cabbage

Tonight left-over chicken wings (anyone spot we had roast chicken at the weekend ) and roast pumpkin and tomato soup with cheesy coutons.

Wednesday salmon, fried I expect, with whatever's looking good from the veg bag.

Thursday. Hmmmmm. I know, we're going out all day, better use the slow cooker for a beef stew. And I've got some red cabbage and apple in the freezer that needs using up. Baked potatoes should finish it off.

Friday. This is usually DMIL's day to cook, but she's away for the weekend and my Mum is coming to look after DD while I write, so perhaps I can leave something for her to put together.

was Lentil Stew with Spinach.

It was my Mom's B'day and that's her favorite, so I made a big pot and took her half.

Last night DS16 made spaghetti with his special sauce

Tonight I'm in class, so it's not my problem

Tomorrow will be turkey & biscuits and buttered broccoli

Friday, how about some takeout? That sounds good!

I'm sitting here with my brain turning to mush after a gruelling week, with the kids having to go to judo later, me having to go to the supermarket while they're there... I'm also supposed to be finishing up some work (60 pages of an 80 pg contract!) and takeout is the best word I've heard fo a while!

last night was a speedy pasta dish - fresh readymade cheese sauce with frozen spinach. The night before was a Thai buffet - we have 3 extra people around for work so we all went out, and I may be cooking for a couple of them tomorrow too.

can I get takeout soup though - chewing seems so exhausting!

Kerri.

Beef roast (already roasting away and smelling gooooood!)

Cheesy mashed potatoes (adding cheese because I'm keeping the beef drippings for tomorrow and not making gravy tonight!)
Baby beans and carrots (green beans, wax beans and carrots)
Applesauce

Tomorrow I'm cooking for my Kappa group (Mexican tortilla soup and apple enchiladas) so I'm leaving beef and noodles for the family.

Lenora