Nights in the Kitchen

I had to call in some help on Sunday night to cook what was on the menu, as I would never have been able to time it out right by myself. Fried crappie, locally caught by Big Monkey and his Papa, thin-sliced fried potatoes, and homemade coleslaw (remember the cabbage from the last post?). We don't own a deep fryer so everything was going into the widest, deepest pans we have along with generous amounts of lard. Yes, folks, you read right: we fry our food in good old-fashioned NON HYDROGENATED lard. I can get it from a couple of local farms with pigs and keep it in the fridge for just this purpose (bacon drippings, I find, work much better for frying eggs or seasoning greens. But lard has no flavor to itself so better for deep-frying and leaves everything super crispy and oh-so-delectable!). Screw the low-fat people: I much less worried about old-fashioned animal fats that have been eaten forever than I am about the new-fangled chemical concoctions foisted on us by an industry that exists only if we stay sick and obese. Follow the money trail, is all I'm sayin...

Dinner: cold beer, fried fish and chips, leftover batter as hushpuppies, with coleslaw on the side. I said to Big Monkey, "If you were always home on Sunday nights, this might be our standard dinner." Course, that would require him fishing a bit more often. Yeah, something tells me he wouldn't mind that too much.

Monday was Date Night At Home and another from the MSLiving "What To Eat For Dinner" collection. Oddly enough, I found it all as a cookbook at the Farmer's Market on Saturday at their cookbook swap table. I chuckled as I hadn't realized I was already doing what they wanted me to pay for (again, since you have to pay for the magazine)! My way has one key advantage: the cookbook is arranged in traditional fashion: all the apps together, all the entrees together, so forth and so on. With the card sets, the night's menu is put together for you, no picking-and-choosing required. I'll stick with my three ring binder.

This week was marinated goat cheese (skipped), minestrone salad, italian sausage with arugula pesto, and macerated berries with creme freche (also skipped). I opted for some of our venison bratwurst on the grill instead of buying pork sausage; at roughly 5 minutes a side it turned out juicy and wonderful. I had leftover chimichurri sauce from last week so just used that instead of hunting down arugula and pine nuts. But I did spring for all the ingredients (that I didn't have on hand) for the minestrone salad. Totally worth it. I'm not a bean fan but this salad has enough different textures and flavors to be worth the time it takes to make. And drizzled with balsamic vinegar and EVOO just makes it that much better. We had a ton left over and we were figuring out ways to change it so we wouldn't get bored eating it every day: add feta cheese. Or parmesan. Sprinkle liberally with fresh chopped basil. Or oregano. Add the stock back to it to make soup. Add chicken for some protein or chopped ham or shaved proscuitto. I mean, really, the possibilities are endless. I don't know that it will make it into the normal repertoire, but definitely something I'd pull out for a dinner party.