Weekly Gourmet

Today is Saturday. Good morning! Or, in my house, "I'M STARVING!" Yikes. Since hunger levels were fierce, and I spent all day baking scones yesterday, no pancakes would be happening today. I quickly whipped up the world's fluffiest scrambled eggs and boom- less screamy kids. I know you know how to make scrambled eggs, but this recipe is the very first thing I ever taught myself how to "cook" when I was a young 20-something, still living at home, finally ready to stop eating cereal for all four meals of the day. So it's near and dear to me and you have to make it. Also, I am taking a virtual cooking class today! The ingredients I have to buy are Starbursts and radicchio, so it should be insightful. More to follow, should it be better than a Starburst Salad. And then it's date night yo! Hot dogs for these babies. Liz's Fluffy Scrambled Eggs  Ingredients Note the beauty of these ingredients against the stark contrast of no house plants in the shot....

Today is Friday! In an effort to be more British, I decided to bake scones today. The truth is, I'm trying to get into Bridgerton, really I am. But I feel weird about myself because it just isn't steamy ENOUGH for me. That girl just needs a tan and a taco. Probably these will help (her and me).  Burnt the first batch. Bloody 'ell! Contemplated my life choices while making a second batch. Do I have to tell you people everything I do in the kitchen?   Elizabeth's Cherry Almond Scones  Yield: 16 scones  Prep Time: 10 minutes Freeze Time: 30 minutes Bake Time: 18 minutes Total Time: 1 hour (with 2 minutes to spare)  My friend Amy says I need more beautiful pictures of my ingredients with houseplants in the background. So, here are all my beautiful ingredients except the almond extract because she's just not photogenic like that exotic Mexican Vanilla bottle. I feel her pain. Also I am determined to grow a fiddle leaf fig tree from a single leaf and this is t...

Today is Thursday. Things got a little experimental around here tonight. I wanted to make seafood but haven't been to my local fishmonger (Costco) in a bit so I only had canned tuna to play with. "Hmm I can come up with something a little better than tuna melts," I thought to myself. I made an Italian tuna salad with cannellini beans and whole roasted cauliflowers. I never thought tuna AND beans AND green things (parsley) would go over with the kids so I let us have it on some lovely sourdough bread I baked today. Yes, yes, carbs on a Thursday. It happens. Picture me doing all this while four little girls giggled and shrieked from upstairs and occasionally filtered downstairs- sometimes wet, sometimes with blue hands, always looking guilty- as I happily sang and played chef in the kitchen... joke was on me! Liz's Italian Tuna Salad Serves 6 Ingredients 1 can cannellini beans (white kidney beans), rinsed and drained 2 T. olive oil 2 T. mayonnaise 1 clove g...

  Today is Wednesday. It's freezing cold today. I really wanted something homey to warm us all up so I decided on an old staple: split pea soup. Very old- this is my grandma's recipe! My grandma was a simple cook. This is just a simple soup, only to be jazzed up after Easter, when one has a ham bone on hand. Adding the ham bone is so good that I used to fight my (elderly, feeble) great-aunts for it. My mom would have to split it so we could each have some for our split pea soup the following week. Oh Italian women. Don't ask me about the gizzards on Thanksgiving. Simple, meatless meals like this are what my first-generation Grandma from Sicily had to offer.   Grandma B's Split Pea Soup Ingredients  1 bag dried peas 8 cups water, chicken stock, vegetable stock, or a combo thereof  1 tsp. salt, more or less I say more. I doubled. Note on salt below. 1 T. olive oil 1 cup diced carrots, more or less I used 2 big ones. ¼ cup finely chopped onion, more or less I used half ...

Today is Tuesday. This dinner was sooo good. I made pan-roasted chicken drumsticks. I wish everyone would give bone-in chicken more of a chance. It’s so much more flavorful, and it’s less expensive. I picked this particular recipe for two reasons: 1) It calls for leeks and I bought leeks on a whim yesterday– they were the last bunch left and something about that made me think they were a hot button item I had to snatch up for myself– even though they were not on sale. And 2) It calls for bacon. Now that my husband is working from home, he keeps taking out pounds of bacon every other day or so. It’s always just sitting there in the fridge, which it never used to be. Leeks + bacon = delicious flavor. Done and done. Reprinted with permission from Food Network Magazine . Pan-Roasted Chicken with Leeks and Green Beans Active Time: 25 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes Serves: 4 Ingredients 1 lb. green beans, ends trimmed (I ended up incorporating our side into our main.) 3 s...

Today is Monday. I can’t believe I have been at this for at least nine days and I haven’t discussed my very favorite food yet: coffee! Oh, the joy of drinking coffee is something nothing else gives me. Throw in a pastry and my kids being anywhere else, and I am happy as a kitten in a ray of sunshine. I don’t often have the chance to incorporate God’s gift to humanity into my dinners, so this short, easy recipe caught my attention. My kids all LOVE steak- far more than either Steve or I care for it. I did not make cornbread because carbs, but I did have a huge side of leftover potato wedges from our weekend of caloric debauchery that I just couldn’t let go to waste. Potatoes are a rarity around here. Like the soldier that I am, I abstained from the fries. (Well I didn't put any on my plate at least.). Reprinted with permission from Leah Brickley, Food Network Kitchen . Coffee-Rubbed Steak with Peppers and Onions Ingredients 2 T. plus 1 tsp. packed light or dark brown sug...