My cooking goals this weekend:
- Unpack new breadmaker
- Use it

I'll be planning and shopping for my Lost party Tuesday night! There will be some form of roasted swine, perhaps mango salsa, and a dessert involving peanut butter.

As far as tonight, I'm fighting with myself over making kusherie (Egyptian lentils/rice/caramelized onions) or going out for Pho, thanks to the last post.

Other than that, hope to continue to break in the Christmas cast-iron skillet, but no particular plans.

- Maple baked beans tonight! (another new thing I'm trying this month)

- Teaching a friend how to make his own bourbon vanilla tomorrow.

I need to find something to make with this Eggplant that I've been ignoring all week. Hopefully something more exciting than just roasting it.

Tonight I'm making turkey burgers with garlic rosemary roasted red potatoes & spinach salad. Yum!

I'm going over to my brother's place on Saturday to make him beef stew using the great tips posted here this week. I haven't made stew since helping my mother in the kitchen as a kid, so I'm nervous/excited by the challenge. I'm also going to make some 17 bean, barley & sausage soup and a big batch of steel cut oats* to eat during the coming week. Comfort food, ahoy!

*I've been looking for a new utensil holder and I thought the suggestion to use a McCann's tin was just brilliant. I picked up one today at Trader Joe's despite the new bag from Bob's Red Mill in the cupboard. I see a lot of steel cut oats in my near future. :)

I have been craving light flavors like ginger and lemon so I bought a bag of meyer lemons and plan to make this lemon olive-oil cake (though I might make it as cupcakes). http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Olive-Oil-Cake-234274

Also bought some peanut sauce on the cheap so may make some chicken skewers to go with that.

Wendy - make caponata with the eggplant...it's great as a spread in a sandwich or mixed with hot spaghetti. YUM

DH and I are totally vegging out tonight... literally.
it's super cold here in Boston and i'm making a big pot of soup with stewed tomato, spinach, mushroom, garlic and chicken stock, maybe I throw in some chili powder to give it a little heat!

no other plans to cook anything really...we're going out to dinner with friends tomorrow night and sunday, well I don't know what sunday will bring really.

lasiciliana: That soup sounds simple and delicious. I can guarantee you that I'll make a pot of my own later this week. Thanks for the inspiration!

Banana muffins (for the freezer) and a beef stew. Maybe a couple of cold beers at some point.

Tonight steak with a recipe for roasted carrots, parsnip and potato coins from Bon Appetite with an arugula salad, tomorrow night will be pan roasted chicken in my new larger sized cast iron skillet with a lemon risotto, sunday brunch will be an attempt at huevos rancheros! Trying to think up some sort of dessert to throw together but am stumped!

We're having friends over on Saturday for tacos, featuring Southwestern Pulled Brisket and Green Onion Slaw a la Smitten Kitchen and grilled shrimp. There will also be red beans and rice, ceviche, homemade salsa, and chocolate-oatmeal carmelitas for dessert.

On Sunday we're picking up our February meat share, so we invited my family over for spaghetti and meatballs to use up the last of the ground beef from the January share. We'll also be cooking Donald Link's German Festival Ham and White Bean Stew to eat for lunch during the week.

And I am already thinking about the chicken and sausage jambalaya I'm planning to make on Super Bowl Sunday in honor of the Saints...

Hmm. I was gonna make my first-ever cheesecake but I did that last night instead. I might make some more fresh pasta and perhaps make a lasagne or do ravioli again.

Pizza tomorrow; beans and rice (w/loads of cheddar) tonight, and possibly also ginger cookies tonight.

We're making the beef stew recipe from Cook's Illustrated. Usually, such a dish here ends up as ground nut stew, with the last minute addition of some organic, crunchy "ground nuts" (read peanut butter) in memory of time in West Africa. This one is quite different for us -- should be interesting, and, we hope, delicious winter comfort food!

Oh the difference of the sexes- he wants stuffed shells, I want summer rolls....we'll see who wins!

Snow ice cream, and whatever can be found in the house. We've got about 4" already, and it's still coming down.

Tonight is either homemade pizza or tacos; tomorrow is grilled flank steak with polenta and roasted beets and turnips. I'm really craving some steak so looking forward to tomorrow nights meal.

Tonight is lentil salad. Tomorrow I'm making a beef stew. I'm also going to make a huge batch of small buckwheat pancakes that can be frozen and throw in the toaster oven on weekday mornings.

I was down at Seattle Fish wondering: Salmon burger, Halibut cake when I spied white king salmon. While previously frozen, white king is my favorite. This will be dinner tonight.

I am cooking ahead this weekend for Super Bowl Sunday -- CI's Smoky Chipotle Chili and maybe a second type of chili for the crowd of my friends coming over next weekend. Otherwise Super Bowl Sunday is too packed with house cleaning to want to slave over a pot of chili. I was looking for a supplemental Chicken Chili recipe, but have not settled on one...Any suggestions?

I stocked up at whole foods and everywhere was a zoo in prep for the big snow. Decided to get a precooked chicken dinner and make stews and chili tomorrow, (gas burners) I sat down the bags on the floor while unloading. When I came back the chicken bag was open and someone furry had torn off the top layer and mangled the leg. Breath sniffing did not identify the culprit among 3 suspects. We had fried flounder instead.

Made a turkey taco salad tonight with lettuce, shredded cheddar and jack, black olives, tomatoes, avocado and black beans w/ a Pacifico for sunset dinner at the beach. Meant to throw some corn and chips in but forgot them at home.

Tomorrow not sure yet, but a food distribution friend has some goodies to give me so I'm sure it will be fantastic!

3 bean vegetarian chill! my version (adapted from the Calorie Commando) includes the addition of a disc of Mexican chocolate & red wine!

What brand are those red enabled pots/pans are in the picture?

This Saturday morning my boyfriend will wake to the smell of pumpkin walnut muffin top cookies fresh from the oven. He is a lucky one.

Make dinner for friends:
-chicken cacciatore with jasmine rice
-appetizer: endive leaves topped with olives, prusciutto, manchengo, and daikon sprout
-salad: cucumbers, avocado, haireloom tomatoes w/sesame dressing
-asparagus w/hollandaise
-mash sweet potato
-grace biscuits
-home-made bread (jim lahey no knead recipe)
-desserts: choice of creme brulee or coconut panna cotta (with muscat)

today i shall embark on my first attempt at cassoulet, using the latest recipe from cook's illustrated and my new red le creuset dutch oven! i bought the duck confit from a local organic butcher to save some time, and even located some salt pork.

also, since i was surprised with the gift of a lovely glass cake dome, i might make a cake! not sure what variety yet...

I was on vacation last week so the cupboard (and fridge, and freezer) is bare. I'll be making a couple loaves of bread, a big pot of soup, trying a new recipe of sweet potato fries (only because I've got too many sweet potatoes lying around), roasted broccoli (got to do it before the head goes bad), and a batch of hermit cookies. My ambition is to do a BIG batch of carmelized onions in the Crockpot, but I don't know if I'll actually manage to pull that off.

I have a three-pound local chicken to cook. I'm not sure if I'm in a Zuni-roast mood or a chicken-with-milk mood yet.

This week's tofu-making experiment left me with tons and tons of okara to use up (and a little tofu, as well). I improvised some lemon-poppyseed muffins around it and found that they tasted unpleasantly soy-y when hot, but once cooled, were delicious and moist. But that used less than half of the okara and now I still have over a pint of it. Maybe mixed into some cornbread...

Still haven't gotten around to cheese-making with my new kit.

Matchbookhymmnal:

I must quote Monty Python's Life of Brian:

"Blessed are the cheesemakers...?"

“What’s so special about the cheesemakers?”

“Well, obviously, it’s not meant to be taken literally. It refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.”

Thai Pork with Slippery Noodles and Pineapple from the Asian Noodles Cookbook--Sat.

Tuna Noodle Casserole from Mark Peel's New Classic Family Dinners--will probably add broccoli florets--Sunday

Banana Cake from the Rosie's Bakery Cookbook--if my grocery store has cake flour in stock

I need to make some lunches for my husband-probably Epicurious' smoked mozzarella and sausage lasagna-I'll freeze what we can't eat this week.

I plan on making chicken francese (from the most recent America's Test Kitchen cookbook" over pasta with salad and bread for dinner tomorrow night.

Milk chocolate mini bundt cakes with a chocolate glaze for dessert.

Made Javanese Chicken Curry last night for my family. Leftovers are going to a couple with a new baby. Tonight making roasted squash soup (chicken stock made last night) and tomorrow is tbd. It's so cold here in Boston that all I crave is for the oven to be on to help keep the kitchen warm! So as I am typing this, I got inspired to make no knead bread!

I love reading what others are making, too. Thanks for the inspiration!

i'm attempting a bourbon vanilla and cardamom creme brulee as we speak. we'll see what happens...

This morning's project was applesauce.

I soaked and cooked beans earlier in the week, so I mixed up some dough for hamburgers buns and am going to try the veggieburger recipe from this site last week as an excuse to pile slices of avocado on top.

Last night I made a rich pot of Short Ribs braised in red wine, carrots, and korean red chile paste. Its adds a little sweetness and spiciness to the dish.

Tomorrow I hope to bake a lemon tart.

Yesterday we had sugared bacon waffles (oh yum). I also whipped up a Smitten Kitten batch of soft pretzels, and topped it off with a cocoanut lime chicken over a bed of rice. Today, we're having company so we're making stuffed mushrooms for an app. Loaf of no-knead bread, cocoanut curry squash soup and maybe baby artichokes.

update: cassoulet was delicious!! also made a loaf of no-knead bread and used another cooks illustrated recipe to make a yellow layer cake with choco buttercream icing and topped with pecans.

fat and happy over here...