Weekly dinner menu, 3/25/2012

We helped a friend move and paint all day yesterday, so when we got home there was no way we were going to cook.  We got Nepalese take out from Himalaya.  They have the best palak paneer in town.

I got another bag of end of the road bell peppers which I am about to roast, and I made beef/lamb stock with the ox-tail and lamb bones this morning.  I keep a zip lock in the freezer to which I add leek greens, mushroom stems, etc. and when I make stock I have some vegetables to flavor the stock with.  Today I also added celery, allspice, bay leaves, and a few carrots.  I roasted the lamb bones at 450 till they were brown and put everything in a big stock pot with filtered water to simmer for a few hours.

Tonight we are making the eye of round as roast beef, making mashed rutabagas and parsnips, and broccoli and asparagus.  I think I am going to make latkes as a side dish for the meat eaters and the main dish for the vegetarians.  Once the meat is out of the oven I am going to make a pavlova shell, we have a lot of cream left over from last week so I am going to use it up in a fancy dessert.  We have too many lemons and limes so I may make curd for the dessert.

Monday: I got two lovely looking pieces of salmon, I think I will make a teriyaki type glaze, pan fry some rice noodles with sauce, and make spinach with sesame seeds.   I got some shiitake mushrooms, so they will work their way into the meal too.

Tuesday: I am going to bake all 5 pounds of the russet potatoes and serve baked potatoes with cheese sauce for the kids, and stroganoff for the grownups.  Green beans for a vegetable.

Wednesday: Twice baked potatoes, baked ham, and chard.

Thursday: French onion soup?  I made beef broth this morning after I went shopping, so something lovely with that.  I have bonito in the house, so I promised my son I would make him soup with noodles this week, I will start the vegetarian soup with dashi, and then either make a hearty miso with tofu and green onions and other vegetables, or perhaps make a sweet and sour vegetarian soup.

Friday: Turkey with mashed sweet potatoes and broccoli, frittata for the vegetarians.

Saturday: Ham again, probably just pan fried with whatever vegetables are left over.  All of our kids will be gone, the boys are going to Chicago with their Grandparents, my daughter is going to Belgium with her aunt.  To be honest I just think my husband and I will clean and do yard work all of spring break.  We both have really hard busy weeks at work, probably we will both be working more than 40 hours this week, so I am really looking forward to break.