We had some great meals this week, all from Nancie McDermott's cookbooks.  I used the stir fry one a lot and also the Quick and Easy Thai.  Delicious! 

This week all meals are Asian. I have been craving it and so far so good.  It's been so good actually that I think I'm expanding the theme to next week too.  My husband should be fine with this since when I ask him what he'd like for dinner he says "something good." This week the meals have been good, so might as well keep it up! 

I have a little more time to cook this week so when I did my menu planning I took this into account.  I also have been craving Asian flavors and recently picked up a few more cookbooks with the focus on Asian flavor.  

After a week of relaxing for the eye, I had a week of being pretty busy with work.  I cooked for a longterm client on Wednesday, Thursday was dentist, a meal for Loving Meals Ministry and prep for cooking for a new client on Friday.  Yay for all clients! 

I do my menu planning on Friday and plan the menus through the next Saturday.  Last week I had planned to have  vegetarian pasta and roasted red peppers on Friday but things changed.

This week and last week I did my menu planning using the cookbook One Big Table by Molly O'Neill.  It's a great book to read and so far the recipes have been good too.  Last week I was on a retro casserole kick - lasagna, chicken casserole.  This week I am craving vegetables and this book is perfect!

I love grilling on the Big Green Egg!  It's easy to use, gets really hot and makes food taste delicious.  I had a pretty busy week last week and thought I would do burgers on the grill on Saturday, but I was too tired to even cook burgers. 

I have been busy cooking for lots of different events, with lots of different people. I love my job!

I haven't cooked for weeks.  Literally weeks.  I missed Thanksgiving which is one of my favorite holidays.

On November 19th I had eye surgery to hopefully repair a detached retina.  It was unexpected and pretty fast and somewhat scary.  I am fortunate to have wonderful friends and customers and canceled everything I had planned through December 6th.

Once the surgery was over, I was told that I would need to be facedown and could sit up for 15 minutes an hour.  The facedown was for at least 2 weeks, we'd see then.

Okay.  Surgery Friday went well, Saturday doctor visit went well and then the pain hit.  I never expected or experienced so much pain.  Any vibration had my head pounding, and by vibration I meant another person breathing.  We filled the pain medication and started taking them.  It took several hours for it to kick in and and then I was much better.  Of course it knocked me completely out, but it did make the facedown thing easier.

My husband wanted to take care of me, so I had planned menus that he could make and Thanksgiving was included.  Friends wanted to bring food and visit, but the pain medication thing really didn't leave me open for visiting or even eating sometimes.  

All is well now.  Or at least much better.  After almost 2 weeks I am now allowed to sleep on my side and I'm healing well.  The pain seems to be gone and the medication should be out of me today.  Yay! 

We had Thanksgiving, my husband timed it around the medication so I would be awake to eat.  He made turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sauteed spinach and pecan pie.  I used Trader Joes for cranberry sauce, cranberry relish and pumpkin pie. 

His pie turned out well.  He used the recipe on Food Network from Frank Brigtsen's restaurant.  I knew it was good, since I had eaten there during my trip to New Orleans.  Trader Joes made the pie crust too. 

Pecan Pie from Frank Brigtsen

• 3 eggs
  
• 1 cup granulated white white
  
• 1 cup dark corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup darkly roasted pecans, ground
• 1 cup medium pecan pieces

In an electric mixer with the wire whisk attachment, add the eggs and beat on high speed until frothy, about 1 minute.  Add the sugar, corn syrup, butter, vanilla, salt and ground roasted pecans.  Beat on medium speed until well blended.  Stir in the pecan pieces.  Pour the filling into the pie shell.  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes.  Reduce the heat to 325 degrees and bake until the filling is browned on top and the crust is light golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool at room temperature for 1 hour before serving.

We don't actually know how long we baked the pie.  I had taken pain medication, he was tired Wednesday after working all day and we both passed out for a while.  No idea how long, never ask the medicated wife to listen for the oven timer buzzer.  The pie was good though. 

I get to cook tonight and am making lemon chicken from a new Barefoot Contessa cookbook.  Can't wait to get back to normal!

Wow, what a quick week!  I like to be busy and I was this week, but I also try to not be crazy.

Tuesday I cooked for my new customer and all went well.  Their cats still like me I think even though I locked them in the powder room while I loaded and unloaded the car.  I don't want anyone escaping! 

Wednesday I did not work so I made some dinner for our small group that night.  There are 4 couples that are meeting to discuss a book called Marriage Without Regrets.  Most everyone comes straight from work, so I thought food would be nice. 

I made a big salad based on an Eating Well recipe.  It had chicken, white beans, romaine, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil, celery, zucchini and feta.  Served it with a vinaigrette and some flaxseed crackers.  It was very good and light so we'd be ready for the pie.

For dessert I made peanut butter cream pie from Nancie McDermott's Southern Pies cookbook.  Very good!  So far I've made two pies and loved them.  I need to keep going. 

Thursday I cooked for a client and included some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins for autumn.  The recipe makes 24, so I baked one dozen for them, brought the rest of the batter home and made one dozen for us on Friday.  Very good, lots of chocolate. 

Pumpkin Chip Muffins from Taste of Home
makes 24

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 can solid-pack pumpkin (15 ounces)
1 1/2 cups canola oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (12 ounces)

1. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil until smooth.
2. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; gradually add to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full.
3. Bake at 400° for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Friday I did get some knitting done and went to Trader Joe's to get car food.  I'm driving to New Orleans for a few days and leaving Monday.  My friend Rosemary will be with me and we'll need car snacks!

My husband and I went out to dinner on Friday night and I wasn't impressed with the meal.  It was a steak house that I've heard raves about, but I really thought we could have had a better meal at home.  I was appreciative of the gift certificate that we used, but was surprised at how basic the food was.

I had crab cakes and mine are much, much tastier.  My husband had steak and he said it was good but the broccoli was rubbery.  We don't have rubbery broccoli at home and we spend much less on a comparable meal.  And we could have had guests for as much as we spent.  It was nice to have a meal out and nice that we had a gift certificate for the meal but also nice to learn that we won't go there again. 

Saturday I went to Macy's to spend some time working for KitchenAid.  I did take 2 muffins for Jon who works in housewares and made sure I had a table so I could demo the pasta press.

Once home I foraged in the refrigerator to make a quiche for dinner.  I had some sausage left from Thursday, some sun-dried tomatoes from Wednesday, some onion, cheese, basil, eggs, and milk.  I also threw in some ricotta I found in the fridge.

Today I am working a couple hours for KitchenAid and then tonight am meeting a friend for dinner.  She is flying in from California to do some work in Warner Robbins, so we'll meet for dinner.  I don't see her very often so that will be nice.

Tomorrow New Orleans!