Unprocessing

The more things that we make from scratch instead of a box, the more things we want to try to make ourselves.

This weekend was homemade cornbread and homemade mayonnaise.  The cornbread was because we had our friends Tracy and Michael over for chili and not enough jiffy mix.  Brian chose a recipe online and ta-da!  Cornbread for a crowd.  It was quite unlike store - bought,  it had plenty of moisture!  That came from giving the cornmeal a 5-minute milk soak.

The mayo was also born out of necessity.... Brian went to make a roast beef sandwich and we didn't have any!  He said that it was quite an arm workout but that it was delicious.

So, in no way will we attempt to cut out pre packaged foods permanently, as they are a huge time saver for two working parents. But whenever there's time on our side, we are sure to do this kind of thing again.

Brian's Creations

Brian wrote the menu last week, and it was all based on ideas instead of recipes.  I don't usually cook like that, I prefer a recipe.  But he's good at it.  

First one was his new take on Chicken Parmesan.  He had seen something on a food network gameshow that gave him the idea, and this is the result:

Fresh Chicken Parm with Couscous

Pan-fried chicken cutlet, topped with canned tomato, a slice of mozzarella and a spinach-arugula blend.  Oh, and shredded parmesan.  Couscous was a nice departure from the normal spaghetti, too.  It tasted light and fresh, which while I love traditional chicken parm, one does not describe it as "light."

Seared sea scallops over linguine.

This recipe puts Olive Garden to shame!  I say that because we went to Olive Garden last month and it was truly disappointing.  I ordered a chicken pasta dish that was like sixteen bucks and what was it?  A pound of angel hair with a little butter and wine, couple of pieces of chicken and a whole pepper cut into huge hunks.  Not their best efforts.  This was scallops, a wine and butter sauce, pepper and onion stirfy and some more of that shredded parmesan.  Not to mention, the rest of that spinach and arugula blend, with Brian's own made-up balsamic and lemon dressing!  (Totally made up on the spot, and it was great!)

I wrote the menu this week, and it's back to recipes.  It'll still be good, though.