Sketti Noodles with Salad, Toast and Volver

Really the most difficult part of this meal was melting the butter for the toast. Cookin' sketti is easy when the sauce is the from a jar. The salad was a nice spring mix. Bryan had the salad sans dressing but I added a great Raspberry Hazelnut Vinegrette.

Grilled Salmon with Spanokopita

The spanokopita was actually lunch from yesterday that Bryan forwent for a sandwich.

For the spanokopita I first removed the filo dough from the freezer to defrost the night before. To start the filling, I chopped about 1/2 a white onion and 2-3 cloves of garlic. These were placed in a skillet with about 2 tbs. olive oil and a large package of baby spinach. I turned/folded the spinach, allowing it to wilt and cook down. When the spinach had fully cooked down I then added 2 whisked eggs to the skillet and stirred and folded the mixture until the eggs were soft scrambled. I removed this from the stove and propped up one end so the water from the spinach will drain well (it took me 2 wet spanokopita before I started squeezing out the water). To roll these, instead of the standard triangle I usually do, I rolled these more like egg rolls. Taking 2 sheets of filo dough I placed about 3 tablespoons of the spinach mixture onto the middle of the dough long ways. I folded in the ends first and then rolled the rest of the filo around the spinach forming a log shape. (In hind sight, it may be better to place the spinach closer to the edge so filo is evenly wrapped instead of thick on one side.) These were placed on an olive oil drizzled cookie sheet and then I drizzled olive oil over each. They were placed in a 350 degree oven until golden brown.

The salmon was bought frozen. I defrosted the 2 salmon steaks for about 30 mins by placing them in a plastic bag and letting them sit in luke warm water for about 30 min. After they were defrosted I poured out the water, removed them from the plastic bag and added the following to the dish to marinate: cracked salt and pepper, a few tablespoons of olive oil, a few splashes of soy sauce, and a few tablespoons of tarragon vinegar. I let the salmon marinate for about 30 minutes while I got the charcoal started.

To cook:

The salmon was first placed over direct, medium high, heat skin side down. I warmed the spanokopita on a bed of fennel fronds on the side of the grill while the salmon was cooking. After about 5 minutes on the skin side I flipped the salmon and let it grill the other side for about 5 min. more. When it was all done, it was removed from the grill and after plating the salmon and spanokopita I splashed some lemon juice on both..... We cracked open a bottle of Etude and it was good.... even if it was almost too hot to eat :)

Bacon Wrapped Porkey Pork with Butternut Squash Risotto

I first sliced some mushrooms, onions and started the risotto. I copped out by using the boxed Archer Farms risotto you can get at Target.

I grabbed these bacon wrapped pork medallions at the Super Center the other afternoon.

To prepare them I heated some olive oil in a skillet and seared them on both sides. After browning they were removed and placed on a pan under the broiler for about 10 minutes, flipped and broiled for another 10 minutes.

While the pork was in the broiler I sautéed some mushrooms and onions in the olive oil.

Maw's Proper "Minner Cheese" Sandwiches

The recipe as transcripted by my husband from his mother:

1 Lg. Jar Pour Minner (Ho Thang)
1/3 block Velveeta
1 1/2 cup med cheddar
2 tea sugar
2 tea mustard
2-3 glops mayonardle

Stirr it up and slather a glop on one piece of white bread. Very important that it is only on one piece since you must fold it up like a taco.

Eat up Ya'll

(p.s. more than 3 will just about kill you :)

Rendezvous Style Ribs

Tonight was my first try at ribs. Actually the first time I ever had to use the charcoal chimney to heat up the grill half way through.

I got the rack of baby back ribs at a local store and have been looking for a good time to fry them up. What better time than the night before the first day back to 'work'?

The only prep required for the ribs was to remove the membrane from the back. We have had the Rendezvous seasoning mix for a while using it in hamburgers. For the basting mop I mixed about a 1/4 cup of the mix with a cup of water and a cup of vinegar. With the ribs and mop ready I checked on the grill. When the coals were ready, about 300 degrees, the ribs were ready for the grill. With the coals at the lowest, I put the ribs up on the top rack.

For the next hour or so..... About every 5-10 min I basted the ribs with the mop mix.

After the ribs had been on the grill for about thirty min and they were golden brown I turned the ribs so that they were now bones side down.

In the 2nd half of cooking I didn't baste quite as often. 1. Because I had to renew the charcoal and 2. The bone side of the ribs did not absorb the sauce as as readily. After about a total time of about an hour 15 I called them done and brought them in. Letting them rest about 10 min I put the bread in the oven and made a quick salad..........

Leftovers are still on the table.............mmmmmmm it was nummy!

Crispy tofu with broccoli and peanut sauce.

Tonights dinner mashup (since I never exactly follow a recipe) is starting here:

Theirs is on the bottom mine is on the top.

The most troublesome 15 min meal I've whipped up lately......... ;)

No red sauce.... no linguini noodles to go with the 4 cheese tomato sauce we had open.. but he wanted spaghetti.... so we go to the store to get spaghetti sauce. While there we pick up some bowtie pasta, 2 6-packs of non-diet peachy Snapple Tea (I had only found Diet at Kroger earler in the day) and also some Gatoraide ..... no the itty bity ones that were in the house already.

The one thing I did already have.. the french bread ($0.75 on the 'We baked too much" rack)

Dinnah................

(I had my leftover chicken spinach pizza mmmmmmmmm :)

Dinner Last Night: Chicken Mole with Spanish Rice and a Simple Cabbage Salad

The Spanish rice was made with brown rice, a jalapeño pepper, green bell pepper, a large handful of cherry tomatoes chopped, chicken stock (instead of water), about a 1/4 can of whole kernel corn and salt and pepper.

I cheated on the mole sauce using the dehydrated paste found in ethnic foods section. For the chicken: it came from the freezer so I boiled it for about 45 min. When the rice was almost done I sautéed some mushrooms in butter and then threw in the sliced chicken just long enough to rewarm and put a little crisp on the edges.