What's for dinner tonight?

I watch a lot of cooking shows on public television. It's weird because I hate to cook. I don't like food, in general, really. My idea of feel-good mac and cheese comes out of a blue box and I would rather order take-out than shop for alien veggies like radishes or beets. Of course, anyone responsible for balancing the family budget (and diet) will tell you, that kind of meal plan is not sustainable!

Collected Recipes

Instead of collecting recipes on little notecards or slips of paper, I have been using the Evernote app. As I go, I'm collecting recipes, notes, pictures and other tid bits into this notebook.

Sign up for Evernote (I get a referral credit!)

Or just browse my Recipes notebook here:
https://www.evernote.com/pub/tomatosld/recipes

Please read, use, and enjoy! Got a recipe? Share it!

Never Too Late To Re-Train

My re-training began about a month ago with some leftover breakfast sausage. It was a Wednesday and I knew there was no way we were going to make breakfast anytime before the weekend. I didn't want it to go bad, so then and there I made a decision to start my journey to becoming a cook. Nothing fancy. Just family dinners and weekly meal planning.

Subject Matter Improv

All those episodes of Julia Child, Martha Stewart, and America's Test Kitchen suddenly fell into place. Heat up the oil in the pan, onions first, then carrots, saute the sausage, add garlic (don't let it burn!), a couple of can of tomatoes and some herbs from the garden, stick it in the oven and wait for dinnertime. I didn't follow a recipe, but even as the ingredients varied slightly, I did follow a pattern repeated countless times by television chefs over the years. I hadn't studied it, but simply by being familiar with the subject, I was able to improvise with good results!

Shopping Efficiency

Not only was it delicious that night, but later that week, I made baked ziti with the leftover sauce that has become a new family favorite. It felt great to be so efficient, and by keeping it up, I've been able to reduce our food bill by over 30% every week! My husband makes great food, but he does not generally have a plan for weekly meals nor for re-purposing leftovers. Frequent trips to the store are costly, in both time and money.

Dishwashers Don't Work Here

I am also taking control of our kitchen. As I said, my husband makes great food, but he uses every dish in the cupboard to prepare his meals and does not clean any of them as he goes--I think this is a result of working in restaurant kitchens staffed with paid dishwashers. The chaos of after-dinner cleanup of one of his meals often bleeds into the next morning. Keeping things neat as I go, helps to minimize clean up later.