Monday, August 9, 2010

What's for Dinner?

Nicole came up with the idea, and I think it is a good one: write down what we eat. I like it because it provides content for blogging, plus it is appropriately narcissistic. I mean, who cares what The Chose's have for dinner? Well, more people should, that's who. And as anyone who sees my facebook entries knows, I very much enjoy taking pictures of the food I cook and eat and showing them to everyone.

Mostly I am hoping that is will create some kind of an archive of foods we consume, which will aid future meal planning. I don't plan on creating any sort of fancy rating system - that just impedes blog posting. I will occasionally provide pictures. So here goes:

SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 2010

We made pizzas. We have a pizza stone which I highly recommend purchasing if you like making your own pizzas. It will change your life. I don't know how much they are because we got ours for our wedding. Whether you use pre-made (Boboli) crusts or make your own, you will benefit from using one every time you make pizza at home.

Normally we make our kids eat exactly what we are eating. You might think that's because we want them to grow up eating normal food and acquiring a wide range of tastes. In reality it is because we are too lazy to make two entire dinners, one for us and one for them. Anyway, for this round of pizzas we made two kinds, one for us and one more for the kids. JVC really really really really likes to put pepperoni on pizza. So we had her do a very traditional pepperoni and cheese pizza, although we did add squash from the farm share just because.

For the adult version of the pizza, we used pizza dough purchased at the bread store. I've also used Trader Joe's dough, which was fine, but this is better. I've also made my own, which is really fun and satisfying, especially if you like to eat dinner at 10 pm. Olive oil, basil, squash and fresh mozzarella were there as well - it was delicious.

Kids Pizza: Boboli - Pepperoni - jack cheese
Adult Pizza: Great Harvest Dough - Basil - Tomato - Fresh Mozz - Squash from Farm share

SUNDAY, AUGUST 8, 2010

Brought out the smoker for a pork loin roast we got when we were participating in the meat farm share this spring. Brined and rubbed, it was ok. I need to work on smoking pork - it's coming out tough and I don't know why. All the chicken I have done has been awesome. Is my smoker too hot?

The star of this meal was not the purple beans (yes, they turn green when you cook them). It was the Lemon Thyme Risotto which is delicious and healthy. Ok, it was not healthy, but it was delicious. I made a lot so I can eat it all week.

Pork Loin - Lemon Thyme Risotto - Purple Beans

Oh yeah we also had chocolate ice cream that we made - it was pretty good but not as creamy as it usually is - I think I over cooked it.

1 comment:

owen4572 said...

Adam, when you smoke pork, you need to choose fattier pieces of meat. The pork loin roast has too little. The fat breaks down during the roasting and makes the meat moist. Try a shoulder roast and you will be much happier. Any of the loin roasts do better when grilled so they get a nice crust and are medium rare in the middle.