Magic Chalkboard of Postiness.

Here's what we had this week:

Except you have to start at the bottom. With the roasted chicken. I love roasting chicken. Especially fancy-schmancy happy chickens from Kathy at Open Range Products in Pecatonica. Kathy is wonderful and her farm is wonderful and the meat is super yummy. She happily hosts groups and is great with kids (being a retired teacher and all). To roast the chicken I shove a lemon and some garlic up its hooha, slather a little butter on it, salt and pepper, roast at 425 for about an hour, or until your meat thermometer, that hopefully your 18 month old hasn't dropped on its face shattering the glass, points to "poultry." Cause chicken is poultry. When I'm motivated I cut up some root veggies to go under the chicken in the pan - this time I did carrots, turnips, parsnips and onions. Then I had some left-over white wine in the fridge that had been there a few weeks, so I poured that in the bottom of the pan too. YUM.

The next day I threw the carcass in a pot with a bunch of water and let it simmer for - awhile. Several hours maybe? Then I used three cups of the resulting broth for this chicken, butternut squash and quinoa stew that I got from.....Pinterest, of course. I have to admit I was skeptical. Despite being related to a woman who dates a Canadian, the title "Cookin' Canuck" does not inspire trust in me. At least not for fine cuisine. I would trust a Canadian with just about anything else. Call me racist, but "Canada" and "Yum" don't really go together for me. Anyway. I was wrong. The Canuck's stew was de-voon. I used pheasant instead of the chicken thighs because: a) it's the end of the pay period, we're broke, and it's what we had in the freezer and b) it's almost Thanksgiving - also known as "the time when we go to Dad's and he won't let us leave without a cooler of game birds because his wife won't eat them," so I figured I'd better use the game birds I had from the last cooler.

I don't know what to tell you about the quinoa burgers. Except - make them. They tasted like falafel....but more interesting. I served them with edamame and the "fry" sauce of mayo and ketchup. Even the four year old deigned to eat them. And yes, it's from Pinterest.

Tuesday I cooked for my family and for a friend's, as she is out of town with a sick father. I jumped at the chance to make pork. I lurve pork. Hubs doesn't eat it. So I made pork chops and stuffing for most of us, and subbed in a chicken breast for the bleeding heart liberal who doesn't know good meat when it hits him in the face. It was just browned chops, over Stove Top (with a few apples and mushrooms to make it interesting), smothered in mushroom soup and baked for 45 minutes. But I did serve it with this broccoli (Pinterest. Again.)....I heart this broccoli and will eat it like potato chips. I don't even get all fancy with the cheese and nuts. Just keepin' it real, yo.

And Thursday's potato bites. Also - Pinterest. Duh. Served with asparagus.

Good, basic, not healthy. The cooking times are long....I put them back in to "crisp up" planning on 30 minutes, but they were done at 15 when I opened the oven to put the cheese on and put the asparagus (tossed in olive oil) in. I was so sure the kids would love them, but no dice. There were "crunchy parts" according to the Queen. I know I should be anti-Baco-Bits. But I'm not. I love those fake little soy buggers.

So there you go! Five totally worth making dinners! And I'm out of squash, so you don't need to worry about anymore squash recipes. You're welcome.

Last week.....

So I have a new obsession. A big, huge, problem of an obsession. It's Pinterest (it's addictive, I don't encourage starting, as you won't be able to stop. But if you want a new drug, lemme know - I'll send you an invite). I love pinning things. Now there are pins that seem to indicate that people don't actually do the things that they pin. And I can see how that would happen. It would be so easy to pin and pin and pin and pin.....and then it's time to go to bed. But I got inspired and last week I did this:

I am unreasonably excited about my new backsplash. I used three coats of magnetic paint and two coats of chalkboard paint. Now my weekly menu is right there, instead of on several post-its which may or may not be in one or three locations around the kitchen. Or maybe my purse. And so when it's 4:00 on Tuesdayand I can't remember what I was going to cook....it's right there!!!! White Chili!! I know it's silly, but it really helps and has cut back on my urge to go to Subway. 

I also found some yummy things on Pinterest. Twice Baked Squash from good ol' Marth. Ah. Mazing. I made it as-is, but I think you could switch out the sour cream with some yogurt if you felt like it. And because it's squash time at the Farmer's Market, or rather it was last week....I was going to try this lasagna I found on Pinterest. And now I can't remember why I didn't. It still looks delish. But instead I made a Butternut Squash Lasagna that my Beautiful Roommate Ness (ok, she hasn't been my roommate for....um, wow. Eleven years. Damn. I'm old.....)sent me awhile ago. It was scrumptious. Not that the kids ate it. But still. And then, more Pinterest: chili mac and cheese. The four year old almost died with loving this. I've never seen her eat so much meat. Hubs and I were less enthused, but the next day he put some chili sauce in it and it was actually much better. 

Enjoy!