Oh. My. Goodness. What a glorious weekend we had here in the Willamette Valley- sun and 60 degrees! We were mowing, cleaning up the garden, and hanging up clothes to dry. What a difference a little taste of spring makes to my mental outlook - everything just seems fresher and I've got energy (and ideas!) for so many projects that I ran out of hours in the day. Do you find that this happens to you, too?
I've heard that they're predicting rain mixed with snow for Thursday - I'm just gonna ignore that for now and revel in Saturday and Sunday.
Though I am still working on a couple of the projects that kept me busy, I feel good about some of the garden clean-up I got done - and even a bit of early spring planting.
Which, of course, I'm going to share with you tomorrow at the first TUESDAY GARDEN PARTY of the season tomorrow - Yeah!!
But first, the menu. I don't know what I did wrong, but the Cajun Chicken Pasta recipe from last week was not a winner. I ended up using Pioneer Woman's recipe because of a comment from Sakura and the one I originally linked to didn't have vegetables and used 2-4 cups cream for four servings! Yikes- that's too much - even for someone like me who's not afraid of cream. While we liked the PW recipe in general (the next day, especially) it was just too soupy - really soupy - and not spicy enough. I've always had trouble getting sauces to thicken just with cream and broth and this was no exception. Hmmm, any ideas where I went wrong?
Here's what we're eating this week:
Monday- dinner out and .75 movie night!
Tuesday- Pork Goulash (new recipe), brown rice, Roasted Beet Salad (I'll use feta, though, and use some garden beets I've got in the freezer)
Wednesday- Roasted Sausages & Onions (peppers aren't really in season, so I'll leave them out), sourdough hearth bread, green salad
Thursday- Simple Sesame Chicken, stir-fried vegetables, rice
Friday- Broccoli- Cheddar soup, tuna salad, homemade crackers
Saturday- Easy & Quick Homemade Pizza, carrot sticks
Sunday- Leftovers
-Jami
i made the creamy cajun pasta inspired by your menu last week... but... i used about 1 cup of half and half (i know on the 2-4 cups of heavy cream right!?!) also when in the garden to pick a green onion my kale was calling to me so i used some of it, along with using closer to 1 cup of tomatoes (using some of my store of slow roasted tomatoes from last years harvest) it was good.. and definately adaptable. now to figure out this weeks menu. thank you for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteYes, you are right- it is pretty adaptable. I should just use less of the liquid ingredients if I make it again. :-)
DeleteI think we use too much pasta, because ours seems to never have enough sauce :). I would say add some of your own heat to it, that's what we usually end up doing. I don't ever have heavy cream on hand so I end up using evaporated milk in my sauce. Maybe to thicken it mix a little flour in with the chicken before you cook it?
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for tomorrows post!!!! It's still 40's here, but I am getting ready to plant peas after St. Patricks day. I'm also going to try and grow my own tomato and squash starts instead of buying them from the nursery. This week will be spent cleaning up some of the raised beds.
Hmmm, do you think evap. milk thickens better than cream? Yes, I should learn always to add cornstarch or flour, as I always have that problem. :-)
DeleteGood for you, Sakura, on growing your own plants! I'll be looking forward to hearing how it goes for you. I cleaned up, too, but still have more to do. Ugh- clean-up is my least favorite part. But it has to be done to get to the good part, huh? :-)