Veggie Stir Fry : remodel dinner #42

This is the second time veggie stir fry appears as a remodel dinner. Again, I used the sauce from this pork stir fry recipe. This time I used onions, carrots, radishes, green beans and bok choy. My sweetie cooked up some frozen pot stickers and steamed rice completed the meal. Yum!

And if all goes according plan (like THAT ever happens), tonight I will be cooking dinner on our new range!

Smoked Ribs : remodel dinner #41

For our Sunday dinner my sweetie decided to smoke some baby back ribs, and boy was I ever glad he did! They were delicious served up with some grilled corn and summer squash.

Leftover Mexican food from lunch : remodel dinner #40

Not too exciting. We went out for lunch and had plenty of food leftover. So, "The Italian Job" in the blu ray player and leftover mexican food. We had a fun meal.

A whole week's list of dinners : remodel dinners # 33-39

I have no photos of the dinners we ate this week, save for one, the delicious pork roast my sweetie did on the grill Sunday night. So I am posting this picture of our new range. You'll see it's still in the garage. Hopefully it will be installed in the kitchen next week, and the 'remodel cooking' series on More Than Just Soup will come to an end. But one can never be certain of such things.




Here is a quick list of this week's dinners in case anyone is interested.

Sat. #33: BBQ chicken thighs

Sun. #34 : Pork roast

Mon. #35 : Albondigas Soup

Tues. #36: Arugula Risotto with Leftover Pork Roast

Wed. #37: Pizza (again!)

Thurs. #38 : Pepper Steak

Fri. #39: Date night! We are going to see Loverboy at the Boardwalk tonight, then out to dinner.

Corned Beef : remodel dinner #32

I was walking through the grocery store the other day and passed by some corned beef. Immediately my mind said "Hey, that's something that can be cooked in an electric skillet!" And so, it found it's way into my cart, and last night it found it's way into the electric skillet. Along with a can and a half of Guinness and some potatoes and carrots.

I made a variation of my usual corned beef recipe with oranges and onions, but no celery. I also didn't wrap it in foil, which is why I had to use so much more liquid. It still turned out passable, but it is not as good as my sweetie's home made corned beef!

Chicken Stew : remodel dinner #31

With the chicken that didn't become fajitas I decided to put together a stew. We got potatoes and spinach from out CSA farm yesterday, so those went in to. I cut up and onion and some garlic and sauteed them until pretty soft with a small palmful of crushed red pepper flakes. Then I pushed them to the side of the pan and added the chicken which I had cut into biggish bite sized pieces. After the chicken had browned, I added about a cup of white wine and stirred it around and let it reduce a bit. Then I added some chicken broth (maybe a cup) and dijon mustard (maybe 2 tsp.), put the lid on and let it cook about 10 minutes. Next came some small red potatoes and another 10 minutes or so of cooking. Last I added the spinach and let it wilt. Voila! Dinner.

"Packet" Burritos : remodel dinner #30

No photos of this one, either. We call these "packet" burritos because they are seasoned with a packet. Specifically, this one from Lawry's. This was a another quicky made in the electric skillet. When the meat was done cooking, we pushed it to one side and heated up a can of refried beans right in the same skillet for easier clean up.

Steak Fajitas : remodel dinner #29

I went a little crazy at the grocery store. In addition to the whole chicken I bought for the rotisserie, I also bought a skirt steak and boneless chicken breast. My original thought was beef and chicken fajitas, but I realized that would be way too much food, so we saved the chicken for another night and just had steak fajitas. My sweetie made a simple marinade with achiote paste, orange juice and cayenne pepper (and probably a few other things, I wasn't watching closely).

Rotisserie Chicken : remodel dinner #28

The second meal cooked on the new grill: this amazing rotisserie chicken. I don't know for sure what was in the rub, but I know it had at least garlic and smoked paprika. That coupled with the smoke from the smoker box in the grill....perfection!

4th of July BBQ remodel dinner #27

We had our traditional family 4Th of July celebration on the 3rd this year. It was a great time with Family at my sweetie's dad's house. The cousins had some quality time swimming and the safe and sane fireworks show was not bad, either. Dinner consisted of way too much food including oysters, steak, corn on the cob, pasta salad, apple pie..... Sadly I have no photos to share, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Steak and Risotto : remodel dinner #26

First meal on the new grill : yummy yummy steak. (With a side of summer squash risotto.)

Pizza! (again) remodel dinner #25 (and a new grill)

The dining room floor is complete, but the kitchen and the living room not yet. The new grill arrived, but not getting hooked up until Friday morning. We enjoyed a delivered pizza while sweetie and G man assembled the new grill. I'm guessing my next post will involve something seared, or rotisseried, or somesuch!

Crow's Nest : remodel dinner #24

This was the day all of our furniture downstairs was removed to the garage in preparation for the flooring to be installed. G-man had already eaten a pretty early dinner, and my sweetie happened to be home early from work, so we took the opportunity to go out to dinner. We really enjoyed the food and the view at the Crow's Nest.

Lentils with potatoes and kale : remodel dinner #23

This one wasn't one of my favorites. For some reason it didn't turn out as good as I thought it should have, but it was still pretty tasty and plenty healthy. It's lentils, onions, garlic, chili powder, cumin, curry powder, coconut milk, tomatoes, chicken broth, potatoes and collard greens. (At least it had all those things in it by the end.) We ate this with some store-bought naan that was surprisingly good.

Cassoulet : remodel dinner #22

The cassoulet was tasty and a bit of a departure, sadly I have no photos because I couldn't find my camera in the construction mess. This was, of course, a super-simplified version of cassoulet. I browned some boneless skinless chicken thighs that I had cut in thirds. Then added a chopped onion, garlic, rosemary and oregano. Once those were softened, I added 2 cans of cannelini beans and a bit of chicken broth, covered it and let it simmer until the chicken was good and cooked. Then I added the sliced leftover sausage from Sunday and let it heat through and boil down a bit. I served it with a sprinkling of fresh chopped parsley and tasty french bread with butter.

Sausages with summer squash and chard : remodel dinner #21

Sunday's dinner : simple and delicious. Grilled sausages and summer squash with some sauteed chard and par-baked rolls from Beckmann's.

Cheeseburgers : remodel dinner #20

It's been a while since I've posted about our culinary adventures in remodel land. But we have still been eating. Rather than go into too many details at this point, I'll give some brief notes about what we've been eating.

Last Saturday : cheezburgers and salad.