What we ate: July 28-Aug 1

Our fridge was still on the fritz (see last week's post), through Tuesday evening. We were still eating mostly out of the downstairs freezer until Wednesday.

Monday
This and that pasta.

I took a cup of frozen bay scallops from the fridge and sauteed in butter for 5 min. or so. In a separate dish, I made quick/microwave tomato sauce from chunky tomatoes. Served with pecorino (for M.) and parmesan, on pasta. Also served small servings of stuffed grapes leaves, mushrooms and tossed salad, which I purchased a few minutes before from deli section of the grocery store (since we couldn't keep leftovers, we only bought small portions).

What PE ate:
Refusing any kind of fish, PE ate cheesy noodles, a slice of ham, and apple slices.

Tuesday
D at work dinner, the rest of us went to McDonalds.

Wednesday
2 pizzas (M's made with sheep/goat cheese), salad

Thursday
spinach/tomato and fresh herb frittata, salad, hot raisin bread

What TA ate:

2 pieces of leftover pizza (TA hates eggs)

What PE ate:

scrambled eggs, raisin bread (PE won't eat eggs unless scrambled)

Friday
Swedish meatballs with cream/sour cream sauce, served with pasta.

Why this didn't work:

I made these with ground turkey breast instead of ground pork/beef, which already made them a little drier than beef.  I had no bread crumbs, so I used a cup of quick oatmeal. Then, instead of sauteeing in butter, I put on an oiled baking sheet in the oven at 350 degrees for around 10 min. The result: they were a little dry. The sauce was a little stingy to make up for it since I only used a cup of chicken broth in the sauce.

What PE ate:

meatballs, pasta with cheese, carrots

What We Ate: June 2-6 (Power outage dinners)

This was an unusual week for us. D. went out of town on Wed. and that evening we had massive storms and the power went out, leaving us to hightail it to a restaurant with electricity. When the power came back 19 hours later, we had to throw food out and started to eat whatever was semi-thawed in the freezer. So, we didn't make a lot of fresh food this week.

Monday
leftover chicken pot pie from Sunday night (which D. had made), salad

Tuesday
bay scallops with potatoes (adapted from "Scallops Oreganata" in Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen), no time to make a vegetable, orange juice

Why this didn't work:
This is not a dish to make when it is nearly 6:30, everyone is hungry and you've got scallops that can be easily sauteed in 5 min. Even with microwaving the potatoes in water to speed up their boiling, it took nearly an hour (labor-intensive hour) from start to table and no one was wild about it. Far happier were they with scallops sauteed with cream, sherry and mushrooms, which I made a few weeks ago, but alas, I had no cream or mushrooms on hand and thought this would be a good way to use up some potatoes. I also didn't have all the ingredients Lidia had listed, such as onions and tomatoes and the chives I substituted for onions just didn't do the trick.

Moral of the story: When you've splurged on scallops, part of the cost is convenience, so it's silly to waste them on labor-intensive cooking.

Wednesday
dinner at Panera, during the storm

Thursday
a half-thawed frozen pizza with melted-ice cream shakes

Friday
omelets with goat cheese, chives and ham (TA and D gone), garlic toast (from thawed out bread), fresh carrots and peas or salad
(PE actually ate this without adaptation)