esrosedotblog

I just updated my menu with a few additions and amendments.

I keep a full list of dinner entrees for about 120 days ahead.

No repeats.

I know. I am amazed at this. How did it happen?

Mostly, I added stuff to it and rarely take anything off the list.

I started this a number of years ago mostly because I was sick of trying to remember what I had when and what to plan for the upcoming week. The other thing is that when I was working, I was on the road a lot of the time and didn't have the wherewithal to make up menu items in the moment. I had to buy and plan ahead.

The list started with about 30 items. A kind of balanced menu. Mixed between fish and fowl and blood meats. A small amount of vegetarian meals as a gesture. I have never been able to make a leap to meatless. And I suppose, by now, it is too late to consider it.

I scatter the list with a variety of entrees. It is amazing how many dishes can be made out of chicken or fish. Not something that I am naturally drawn to or at least not in the beginning. Having interesting chicken ideas is a skill that has to be developed. Fish sort of takes care of itself as I consider it obligatory and not of great interest from a pleasure point of view. Of course there are good fish items. Fish sticks for example. But none of them are good for you. I tend to make the plate interesting with the starch that goes along. Exotic rice dishes (out of a box), pastas and so on.

This is how the list has grown. New additions to a staple fish or meat or fowl. If we like something it stays on the list. If not, off. But due to careful curating of the available recipes, I can reduce the failures to near zero.

I do have to admit that a lot of the 120 items come "out of a box". Or prepared. Or whatever euphemism passes for anything not "from scratch".

Part of this is laziness but also I claim to have had a whole lot of experience, when I did actual work, in the food business and so I know that despite the bad press a lot of prepped foods are actually good for us and pretty good tasting. They have to be if they want to sell.

I have wandered far afield from the basic meat and potatoes eating of my childhood. But not so far that I have lost my way.

My criteria is that whatever makes the menu can be setup and finalized between 430 pm and the time we sit down at 530. There are some exceptions. A roast. Maybe a casserole although most have been replaced with pre fab food.

I am not a fine chef nor a gourmet nor is my husband. But we eat well and with great variety.

The whole world of "recipes" incidentally is out of my range. I use a book and am happier for it. The mainstays are Joy of Cooking and the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. My mother used the latter although I have a more current edition. Neither recipe book has fucked up the originals too much and the spirit is the same.

I enjoy cooking because I enjoy eating and it is happy way to spend my time and make a contribution to the household. Tonight is Stouffer Braised Beef, tomorrow B F Chang's Chinese Chicken, then real chicken breast with stuffing from a box. Gravy from an envelope. Salad all the time. Did you know you can buy pre made salads too? I guess I am not as big a chef as I thought.

Labels: cooking