Weekly Gourmet

Today was 40 degrees and my husband brought home some baby pink tulips for me, so now I am in full-on February-Is-Basically-Spring Mode. Tonight's dish featured a few nods to spring veggies plus some hunks of pork. Like porky February plus Marchy veggies. And the best part is that I got this one from my favorite section of the Food Network magazine, where they offer low calorie dinners (under 500 calories) AND IT STILL HAS CARBS! Farro are carbs...gluten FREE carbs actually! I win again! What's my prize? Am I gluten free now? No. I hope not. Maybe just accepted as a leader of the gf society or something. Honorable member. It can be dairy-free too if you omit the pecorino romano or use your strange dairy-free cheese alternatives. One change in my life is that my kids started back up with "activities." Joy. My prime cooking time is now carpooling time. Fine, it's great to see the excitement on their little faces to be at piano and swimming. OK not really piano, but ...

Today is Wednesday. I know what you're thinking. Chinese New Year is nine days away and Liz most likely thinks it's today and has prepared a dish worthy of dragon parades and fireworks! I knew it! Yep- I went with an AWESOME pork stir fry tonight because I was thinking about my niece, who hails from China, and how it's her birthday tomorrow and she was born on Chinese New Year. I assumed CNY was an annual thing but I guess it's one of those tricky date-changing holidays like Memorial Day. Anyways, Sophia is going to be a FAMOUS ballerina one day so I like to do all I can to show her I am an amazing aunt, probably like a mentor, maybe even an idol to her. The big sister she never had...who ALLLmost honored the Chinese part of the family's heritage correctly. With pork. She's vegan. Whatever, this DOES happen to be gluten and dairy free! So it accommodates some people's diets, just not my niece's. Happy 15th to Sophia. Couple notes on Asian stir-fry dishes...

Today is Tuesday. While we were renovating our house, we lived with my in-laws for seven (7) months. I LIVED WITH MY MOTHER-IN-LAW for seven incredibly short, easy breezy, fun-filled months. No I'm just kidding. Honestly it was fine and I recommend to anyone that if you and your in-laws...don't...always recognize each other's finer points, go move into their home for an extended period of time. Now I am their favorite child AND I am able to freely yell at, argue with, and lovingly make fun of my mother-in-law like she's my own mom. Lots of exaggerated eye rolling. It's swell. And I even got her to start keeping her butter out on the counter! See, she listens to me. Good Rose.  My one condition for moving into someone else's house was that I had to be in charge of the kitchen. You should have seen me lugging over bins of pans and spices and utensils that I thought I couldn't live without (and it was only supposed to be for eight weeks!), it was hilarious...li...

Today is Thursday. Thursday is my last night to cook dinner for the family and this week I am mentally army crawling to the final stretches. I am usually almost out of fresh vegetables and I can taste Friday cheat day coming tomorrow. Today I made the world’s easiest dinner, the pre-seasoned pork tenderloin. I was hesitant to make pork twice in the same week, especially in my first week of bloghood, but I had it in the fridge, and still only had sweet potatoes and Romaine on hand, which go perfectly with it. Here’s what I did for this meal: Liz’s Sweet Potato Mash  Ingredients 2 ½ lbs. sweet potatoes (see I measured for you) 3 T. salted butter Cinnamon Nutmeg 1 tsp. salt About ¼ cup milk, more or less Whatever you have is fine. We have 2% here. 1) Peel and dice the potatoes. Put them in a pot of salted water to cover. Bring to a boil. Start your pork now. 3) Stir often with a fork. Check if they are tender by piercing a big piece with the fork whenever you sti...