Heather says:
Let’s get business out of the way before settling into a conversation. There were 77 entries and Random.org picked number #55, better known as Crystal. Check your email later today. For those who didn’t win, hang tight, it sounds like a few more cookbooks will be coming up for grabs in the near future.
Rather than a traditional, just post what we’re going to have type of Menu Monday, I thought I’d talk a little about the process for this week. I’m still digging through the freezer, pulling out the items hiding in the back corners, but I did visit a farmers market on Saturday and took my plans down an unexpected road.
Aside from the kettle corn -purely market research- we found collards, honey, peas, and surprisingly some gorgeous tomatoes. A friend of mine runs a greenhouse, and they were gorgeous.
The tomatoes and collards apparently have shaped my culinary mood for the week. Sunday dinner was tomato pie and collard greens, we’ve started off Southern and I think we’ll be marinating in those flavors the rest of the week. I had collard greens on my mind while poking around the web and I happened to discover this old Julia Child episode with a very young Emeril Lagasse.
While watching, I realized I have never written about mirepoix, something I will rectify later this week with a post on traditional and Creole versions. I will also work on a stand alone roux tutorial. I have explanations of roux with several recipes, but nothing freestanding. For myself, I plan on making the shrimp étouffée from the show. Conveniently my husband, completely unaware of my culinary jaunt requested jambalaya, one of the recipes I’ve been longing to update. I posted it shortly after the site was launched, long before I knew anything about food photography.
So now that you know what is shaping our menu this week, what’s on yours?
I'm working off the menu I created last week. There's still quite a few meals on the list since I didn't cook this weekend, and I seem to have managed to buy 98% of my groceries for 2 weeks for right around $100. Yay! Not too bad when you're feeding 6 people. 🙂
Excellent, are you couponing, cooking from scratch or a mixture of the two?
I try to stay away from coupons. They never make it to the store with me or I forget about them. Most of the cooking is from scratch. I also make sure to stock up on meat when it's on sale. Albertson's has some killer deals on their meat, and I can usually get chicken breasts buy 1 get 2 free and roasts buy 1 get 1 free. Occassionally the lady at the meat counter will give me a great deal on hamburger meat.
My process this week was to let the cook book help me decide. Usually I look in the cupboards/fridge/freezer and let the predominiate ingredients decide for me – this week I went with "New and tasty sounding" 🙂 Worked out well as we only spent $60 on groceries 🙂 … and eat supper will be the next days lunches – so I'm saving money right there by NOT going to the canteen at work 🙂
Monday – Tofu-parmagianna
Tuesday – Greek Cheese Tortelinni Salad
Wednesday – Asian Beef Salad
Thursday – Cheats mini quichepies
Friday – Takeout! 😀
My recent post Forms & Red Tape & Menu planning Monday & Elevator etiquette…
What's in the Greek Cheese Tortelinni Salad (aside from the tortelinni?)? It sounds excellent.
Heather, I love planning my menu that way.
I usually go to the public market on alternate Saturdays, and the week's menu planning starts with what I find there. This week, I picked up a beautiful head (bunch?) of escarole – plenty for 2 meals – for $1 – so a variation of beans and greens is a no-brainer for this week, and we'll use up the rest next week.
Curious to know what kind of honey you found! There are so many great types out there that you have to more specific! I sell mine at Farmers Markets as well so you definitely went to the right place to get good local honey!