Weekly Gourmet

 Today is Thursday. Taco Thursday. My mom still comes over and folds my laundry for me. And sews things. And she brings me all the groceries she finds on sale. Tonight I got an eggplant and fancy onions. The point is, she is a saint, and she deserves a taco. So don't get any crazy ideas that I normally have dinner parties twice a week on school nights-- it just worked out that way this week. Party yet again tonight. Fiesta actually. For my Mamacita Carmelita and my Poppi Chulo. OK I don't really call him that. But she's my Mamacita, in my phone and everything. "Yo, Mamacita, I need some celery on the cheap." And she's on it. She has ALREADY bought it most weeks. In unrelated news: I got an instant pot for Christmas. Pressure cooker? I still don't understand how to refer to it. Liz is dubious of apparatuses. Apparati? Everyone's onto pressure cookers and air fryers (got one of those for Christmas as well) and I still don't even really know how to us...

Today is Tuesday. As much as I LOVE to cook, I conversely HATE wasting food. I mean I have anchovies in my freezer. I compost. That being said, leftovers were piling up around here like laundry, so Mama took the night off. But what kind of professional, famous blogger would I be if I just left all my little bloglings hanging? So, tonight I decided to get my creative juices and my broiler (and my smoke alarm) going and whip up an original salsa for this week's upcoming taco night. (We don't confine our tacos to any specific night of the week around here.) Lately I have had this recurring fantasy/idea for somebody to make and serve me my usual spicy margarita, but with something sweet in it as well, something like a strawberry. And THEN I wondered to myself...what if my salsa had both jalapeños and strawberries? What would happen then? What if... what if... there were strawberries INSTEAD of tomatoes?! I mean they are both red, right? Plus sometimes I take issue with non-August/S...

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...

  Today is Monday. I tend to be healthiest and get the most accomplished on Mondays. Today I was neither healthy, nor did I accomplish my grocery shopping, as I needed to. It’s still Christmas break so I figure I get some slack. The lack of groceries meant that I ended up having to make the gorgeous salmon I had on hand with sweet potatoes and the same Romaine side salad we had last night. Sweet potatoes don’t really go with salmon in my mind, and I hate to repeat a side two nights in a row, but I had no other green. Note on fish: I ALWAYS buy wild caught fish, from US waters. It really limits what I can find, but my husband puts his foot down on food that eats its own poop. I made my own sweet potato hash creation: Liz’s Sweet Potato Hash Ingredients Sweet potatoes Enough to feed your family…You’ll want leftovers to make with over easy eggs all week. Olive oil Salt and pepper Nutmeg Cinnamon Sage if you want it Instructions      1) Preheat th...