Sunday, March 20, 2011

Menu Plan for the week of March 20


Last week, it turns out was all about eating out. So some of  the items from last week are back on the menu for this week. 

Sunday: Stovetop Taco Pasta
Monday:  Rotisserie Crockpot Chicken
Tuesday:  Leftovers
Wednesday:  Spicy Pork Chops with Herbed Roasted New Potatoes
Thursday:  Cheese tortellini with marinara sauce
Friday:  Teriyaki marinated chicken (using Trader Joe's amazing Soyaki marinade)
Saturday:  Leftovers (since we have lots on our weekend To Do list

Good luck with your week's menu plan.

Check out http://www.orgjunkie.com/ to see other menu plans for the week.

Pie In Honor of 3/14 - International Pi Day


Last Monday was International Pi Day. Why?  Since March 14 is 3-14 which everyone who ever took a math class knows are the first 3 digits of the mathmatical constant. Get it? It took me a minute myself but I say it is because I am not much of a math wiz (just ask Mr. Gooch), but I like to think I am a bit of a baking wiz so in honor of Pi Day, I made us a pie. A fruit pie, peach melba to be exact. There is just something about the sweet of the peaches and the slightly tartness of the raspberries that makes me swoon whenever I think of the combination of flavors. Just writing this is making my stomach rumble and is spiking my need to see if there is any pie left in the fridge.


I used a recipe I found on http://www.food.com/ as the basis but tweaked it a bit since I now have trouble following pie recipes to the letter. Why? I blame my husband and his constant tweaking of various recipes. He is rubbing off.

Since we are just now coming out of the depths of winter (I still have snow in my yard), I used frozen fruit in the pie, adding a bit more flour to counteract the extra juices of the half thawed fruit. I also skipped a couple of ingredients (nutmeg, not a fan). and added extra creamy vanilla instead of the which cholocate raspberry truffle ice cream referred to in the food.com recipe here. All my changes and modifications are found in the recipe below.

And don't forget to mark your calendar for July 22, which is Pi Approximation Day since 22/7 (the date in date/month format) is the common approximation of pi. And another excuse to bake a pie for your friends, family, office mates or for yourself.

Peach Melba Pie
(Source: modified from food.com)
Ingredients
1 refrigerated pie crust
2-16 oz bags (4 cups-ish) of frozen peaches, thawed for about 30 minutes
1.5-16 oz bags (2.5 cups-ish) of frozen raspberries, thawed for about 20 minutes (2.5 cups-ish)
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 tablespoons seedless raspberry jam, melted
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Directions
Preheat overn to 375
Line baking sheet with foil, place on rack in lower 1/3 of the oven.
Line 9-inch pie pan with crust.
Toss peaches with sugar, flour and ginger.
Spoon into crust, distributing evenly.
Mix raspberries with the balance of the melted jam.
Spoon raspberries over peaches. (if there is any liquid from the frozen berries, do not add to the pie, there is enough liquid in the peaches and berries).
Place top crust on pie, crimping the top and bottom edges together.
Cut a number of holes in the top to allow steam to escape.
Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes or until filling is bubbly and the crust is light brown.
Let cool on rack.
Serve with ice cream.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Menu Plan for week of March 13 - This Week We Are All Irish!

I love St. Patrick's Day.  Not because I am a huge fan of corned beef and cabbage but because I love hard cider (preferrably Irish, of course) and traditional irish music (especially the pipes), and I can't forget Irish Cream.  :-) 

While there isn't much Irish fare on the menu this week, we will still be celebrating by having some of our favorite recipes this week.  And I am planning on making Irish Cream Brownies for a treat.  And while it is all about the green this week, don't forget that tomorrow 3/14 is Pi Day, so you might want to make a pie tomorrow night.  I am thinking a mixed berry pie using some of the fruit I have in the freezer sounds like the ticket.  Yum!  Looks like this is a week for desserts.  And it looks like a week to spend some extra time on the excercise bike.

Sunday:  Steak Perfection with corn and potato rolls
Monday:  BBQ pork in the crockpot with peppers over brown rice
Tuesday:  Out for dinner and Mr. Gooch is in class
Wednesday:  Italian marinated chicken on the grill with harvest grain blend and a salad
Thursday:  Leftovers (or Out for dinner depending on which locale has the traditional Irish music and food)
Friday:  Stovetop Taco Pasta and crescent rolls
Saturday:  Cheese tortellini with chicken (leftovers from Wednesday) and marinara sauce, salad and crescent rolls

Here's hoping you have a safe and happy St. Patrick's Day and get to have some tasty pie on Pi Day.

 

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