The menu for the week beginning March 28 is:
- Sunday Breakfast - Biscuits and sawmill gravy accompanied by hash browns
- Monday - Pasta with Tomato and Almond Pesto accompanied by roasted broccoli
- Tuesday - Skillet Pizza with tossed salad
- Wednesday - Smoky rib eye steak accompanied by loaded mashed potatoes and peas
- Thursday – Tuna melts accompanied by green beans amandine
- Friday - Lamb tacos – adapted from Giada’s recipe
Dessert - Fluffy yellow layer cake with butter cream frosting
Challenges
The butter cream frosting sounds finicky. The crème fraîche called for in the fish taco recipe will be a new sauce for me. Seems to be just buttermilk and heavy cream warmed, rested and chilled – is it that simple?
Outcomes
The more I make my hash browns the better they are! The biscuit recipe was my own concoction (more on that later) and the sawmill gravy technique is getting better every time. It was a little salty so next time I’ll wait to check the seasonings until after I crumble the sausage back in.
The cake itself is yummy; AB’s buttercream icing, not so much. Oh the recipe worked OK – the comments were helpful in getting it right the first time – but my family didn’t care for the texture and to tell the truth I didn’t either. A bit too oily and not nastily sweet. Perhaps it was the corny syrup. I’ll have to try a different icing concoction next time but at least the cake got the nod of approval from my daughter.
The pasta with tomato and almond pesto was fabulous. I’d have that again anytime!
Skillet pizza is an existing family favorite and it didn’t disappoint.
The rib eye steak and potatoes passed with flying colors. The steak was very tender and the potatoes were wonderful. My daughter – the mashed potatoes purest – even liked them.
While the tuna melts won’t win any awards, I finally got the amandine sauce right – I let the butter brown a little longer this time. They were really yummy!
My lamb tacos combined elements of an Alton Brown Gyro recipe with toasted wonton cups from a Giada recipe. Turned out pretty good for first time around. You have to like a blast of sour to eat them.
Oh and the crème fraîche – my new favorite thing to try on just about everything! It was easy to make. Mine came out a little on the damp side and I was expecting something more sour cream-ish. Having never had any before I don’t know if that’s normal or not. It is just a little less firm than sour cream and doesn’t have a lot of body. However, it’s very, very yummy – I’ve dipped omelet pieces in it, fruit, lamb, fish sticks and was never disappointed!
