Food to Eat (& photograph)

I need to come clean about something.  I didn’t finish my book.  The cookbook-thing that I told you about months ago, well, I never finished it.  It was 11:45 on the night before my coupon went from “free book” to “$25 off a book that surely costs more than $25.”  I was furiously typing, and talking to Handsome about how I just needed to get a few more recipes typed and then I could do the book.  And Handsome says to me, “You’re a wonderful person, and have no timing/procrastination issues at all.”  Okay, that’s not really what he said.  What he said was something along the lines of “You don’t have pictures of the majority of your recipes.  You should have pictures.  You want pictures.  Don’t publish a crappy book just because you’re late.  Take the hit, end up paying more for it, but make a book you can be proud of.”

That man, I’ll tell you what, he’s brilliant sometimes.  And if he’d lose the mustache, I’d tell you I absolutely love love LOVE his face.

Anyhow, we had that conversation months upon months ago, and guess what?  I still don’t have pictures for the majority of the recipes in the book I seem to be trying my darndest not to finish.  And I still have to type of some of my recipes.  Have I made those things?  Oh, heck yes I have.  Did I photograph any of them?  One.  Last week.  Have I included any of those photos in the book yet?  Not a chance.

So starting this week, *SWEEPING PROCLAMATION*, I’m only going to make cookbook recipes!

Actually, what I mean by that is I’m going to make 3-5 cookbook recipes a week.  I’m going to photograph what I make.  And I’m going to type 5-7 recipes a week.  Typing, cooking, and photographing, thus will be the sum of my days.  Here’s what most of the pages of my book look like right now:

Top Left: MeatLoaves
Top Right: Red Enchiladas
Bottom Left: Steak Bites
Bottom Right: Tacos

If I were working from this, we see that I need to type these 4 recipes, and also make & photograph one of them.  I choose… Notmeatloaf.  You’ve never heard of the dish “Notmeatloaf”?  Let me assure you, anything that is “Notmeatloaf” is wonderful.  Why is something that is not “Notmeatloaf” in my cookbook?  Handsome l-o-v-e-s notNotmeatloaf.  So, as you young grasshoppers will learn, and you old grasshoppers know, in marriage, you make sacrifices.  Him, he works 3 jobs and goes grocery shopping with me for company.  Me, I make him meatloaf on a semi-annual basis.  Because that’s love, ladies & gents.

Okay, not that we’ve had all that lovey-dovey talk, I feel properly chastised and am convinced that I should make Handsome some meatloaf this week.  There we go, the beginning of my dining menu.  And now, since I’d hate to start one more thing and not finish it, here is the rest of the menu for the Magagnotti household.  You see anything you like, you call me up, I’ll set you a place.  Also, we’re going to be eating a lot of pantry items in this week’s menu.  Its because I’d rather moved canned green beans in my stomach than in a box, and we’re supposedly moving sometime next week.  You might think that a person should know for sure, if she is moving out of her house within the next 10 days.  Me, no, I like to play it by ear.

[NOTE: Recipes to photograph have an *]

Thursday: Chichen Cordon Bleu.  I’ve been promising myself I’d make this for about 2-3 weeks now.  It doesn’t need to be photographed, but it needs to be made.  Yum!

Friday: Meatloaves* (GROSS when you write it like that.  Meatloaf is so much less gross than Meatloaves.)

Saturday: Pasta Carbonara*.  It’s similar to this recipe, but a special version from the wonderful off-the-boat Italian Immigrants who moved to my small Western-PA hometown in my 8^th grade year, and continue to make delicious food there.  Why was such a wonderful gift given to the people of Newbie?  I do not know.  Perhaps it was a mistake, a twist of fate that wasn’t supposed to happen.  Either way, this recipe, and others like it, is the reason that I call my parents on the way home and tell them I’ll meet them at Joes, instead of their house.

Also, this recipe is in no way good for you.  Bacon, heavy cream, parmesan, it goes home with the hat trick.  This recipe may also be a large part of the reason I gave Handsome high cholesterol within 6 months of being married.  But he enjoyed getting there! He is working this day, so he won’t have to partake.  Really, I’m only thinking of his heart.  Besides, he has his loaves of meat to keep him warm. (EWW!)

Since this recipe is so (a) Awesome and (b) Unusual, perhaps I’ll do a tutorial of it.  Let’s discuss this later.

Sunday: Left-overs, I’m sure.  It just has to happen.

Monday: Chicken Parmesan*.  I bake the chicken, and use a large cut of it, so that Handsome doesn’t load up on carbs.  We’re still trying to tame that ‘stache, and I don’t want to forget about it(not that anyone could forget it)!  Seriously, I’m not sure how much longer I can take it.  Also, confession time, this isn't the recipe I'm going to use.  But I can't find that recipe on the interwebs, so this is what I suggest, minus the olives.  Bleh, olives.. Found it!   Seriously good, folks.  Seriously.

Tuesday:  Left-overs, again.

Wednesday: Lasagna* with Garlic Bread*.  One for us, one for the lovely lady from church who had a baby last week.

Thursday:  Left-WAITFORIT-overs.  I know, planning for it 3 times in one week, it just seems excessive.  But really, I’m making these meals that have 4+ servings each, and there’s only the two of us.  We eat left-overs for lunch just about every day, but it still takes a while to work through the massive stack of filled tupperwares in the fridge.  Also, this way most of my dishes can be clean for what comes tomorrow…

FRIDAY: Some sort of pulled pork sandwiches*.  I’ve got to feed the massive hoardes who will be coming out to help us move!  It’s not Friday for sure, but as soon as I know, you’ll know.  And then you can arrange your weekend plans around my tentative moving schedule.  Right?  Right?  I’ll also be supplying sweets (brownies, cake, something) in the afternoon, and cinnamon rolls in the morning.  Just sayin’

Also in the running, I'm making some sweets (as said above for Friday/Saturday), and some muffins and some waffles and some welshcakes... It's going to be one heck of a week for the Breakfast books!  We'll have sides upon sides of canned vegetables, as I mentioned before.  I may even pull a GPeg (what I call my Grandma Peg in my phonebook) and just grab random stuff from my pantry and put it in a casserole.  It's possible, crazier things have happened.

Now that I've made up my mind, I can go shopping.  Bueno.  Are you making anything this week that you're excited about?  

Hungry & Shopping,

TFW