Family Dinner Menus

Monday: Family Salad Nicoise, French Bread
Tuesday: Hot Dogs or Hamburgers, crab bisque soup from deli, rosemary bread
Wednesday: tomato curry, pulao rice, crockpot chicken
Thursday: I have no idea yet.
Friday: Pizza

Midweek Dinners

Tuesday: Shrimp Scampi.  Frozen cooked shrimp was thawed in fridge over previous two days.  Then butter and garlic into saute pan, shrimp and cooked spaghetti added.  Some kids liked it--I thought it was disgusting.

Wednesday: Benson Burritos/Bean burritos.  with tomato, lettuce.  Chips.  Milk.

I started browning the hamburger, then I had to drive kid to appointment.  I finished making dinner.  We ate, and I finished I before the kids and left to go to a midweek silent worship at the Friends meetinghouse.  Then I got back to take the kids to church and scouts.  Then I helped the Smallest Kid with her homework, went back and picked up the kids at church, and cetera.

Thursday:
marinara sauce over leftover shrimp scampi.  Rewarmed in microwave in casserole dish.
green beans with salad nicoise dressing.
Orange slices
water

Good granite and caeserstone place

http://www.artisticstoneinc.com/

IceStone colors I might use

Alpine White and Ivory Cloud

These two only differ in the color of the concrete medium.  Ivory cloud is slightly darker.  My upper cabinets fall between the two colors.  afaic, I could use either one equally well.

White Pearl

Is very pretty.  I held it up to some irridescent backplash tiles that included some blue in the store and it blew me away with gorgeous.  The gold/tan in the flecks is pronounced.  Makes me wonder about all the silver tone trim on the cabinets, and the sinks.

Sky Pearl Image from replacementcounters.com

Sky Pearl

The blue glass chips in the surface are just enough color.  A surface I would enjoy working on.

Next to the same irridescent backsplash tile, it was diminished, less exciting.  Again, check for use with silvertones, but seems to be less problematic than White Pearl.

Persimmon

practically the same color as the tiles I have now.  Definitely a color I love, generally speaking.  Does still look dated paired with the brown.   I like Sky Pearl better in the kitchen.

Blue Sky.

Now finally a blue counter.  I like it with the brown (though I am thinking 2007/8?) but there's something a little medicinal about it, especially with my cream and brown laminate cabinets, as if Pepto Bismo came out with a blue version.  

other granite to check out.

blue eyes
luna pearl

Edit to add: turns out these aren't quarried in USA either.  So nevermind.

All Is Well necklace.

Dang, this is cool.  Having the bird on it is important too.  Crystal Bueller made it for Nie Nie.  Therhouse made a silver version.  But they're all sold out.

The fact of the matter is I don't wear necklaces.  But this one sums up what I'm getting out of reading Nie Nie blog this morning.

Try this Notes

http://theculinarychase.blogspot.com/2007/06/roasted-fennel-chilli-and-sweet-potato.html

Dinners served over 3 hours.

Though not much cooking.

The older kids all had places to be, so I went out to dinner with the youngest.  Chipotle, her favorite, which she doesn't get to often because a couple siblings hate it.  It was just shy of 5 PM, and I've been trying to get dinner served crazy earlier, between 4 and 5

After we got home, so did her brother.  So I made him a cheeseburger.  Around 6.

My husband offered to pick up the older one from her class.  I suggested they go out to dinner together, since three of us had already eaten.  Around 6:30.

Finally, I picked up the Pescatarian and gave her and her friend and their bikes a ride home.  She was hungry so I made her a Bertolli Shrimp Scampi & Linguini from frozen.  The Youngest said she was hungry again and ate the other half.  Then her brother saw it and wanted some too, so I made another package of it.  So, dinners again around 8.

I think a family dinner between 4:30 and 5, with some light snack between 7:30 and 8:30 can work very well.  I noticed that the littles ate about half their usual serving of pasta.

Salad Nicoise and Cheeseburgers

Salad Nicoise (first time+)
Cheeseburgers/Boca Burger
Milk or Orangina

This was a hit.  The littles ate cheeseburgers, with a little salad as their vegetable.  It would be fun next time to make broiled buttery "french bread," and use some of it as buns for the burger eaters.

I made the Salad Nicoise from the Simply Recipes site, half a recipe.  This would count as more than a first time, since the last time I attempted Salad Nicoise, years ago, was a yucky never-again disaster.

It was good, here are my notes:
I did use canned tuna.
I did have a real lemon.
I substituted canned olives that we like.
I substituted dried oregano/thyme/basil, measuring 1/3rd as much as fresh.

I'm looking for more green bean recipes.  I've got two pounds of green beans still to go this week.

Deli Dinner

a selection of sandwiches from the deli
leftover chicken and potato for her that doesn't like sandwiches
drink milk, skip vegetables.
I had potato chips and plums out, but no one bothered with them.

Chicken and arugula orecchiette

Chicken and fingerling potatoes in crock pot
Arugula-goat cheese orecchiette.
Milk

Around noon, the frozen boneless chicken thighs go into the crock pot with fingerling potatoes.  I sprinkled my standard garlic salt, paprika, and cumin.  On high for 4 hour hours.

I chopped the arugula into goat cheese and creme fraiche for a pasta sauce.   It was my version of a Mariquita Farm recipe, using what I had on hand.

Experiments with Hunch

Glasshouse by Charles Stross
Go Away War, Gone Away World, by Nick Harkaway
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
Diaspora, Greg Egan
Only Forward, by Michael Marshall Smith