Thursday- Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes, white pan gravy and tossed salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette.
Friday- Homemade pizza, this hits our menu at least once a week, I have a couple of go-to crust recipes we usually make thinner pizza crust and cook it crispy on a pizza stone, here is one recipe I use:
Homemade Pizza Dough (sorry I am not good at remembering where I get all my recipes from)
1 cup warm water (not lukewarm…truly warm)
1 tablespoon active yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
Place yeast and sugar in bowl; pour warm water over and allow to sit for about 5 minutes.
In another {larger} bowl place:
2 cups flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 TB olive oil
(you will need an additional 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup cornmeal a little later in the recipe as well)
Mix for a minute. Once the yeast/water mixture is nice and foamy, dig a well in the middle and mix together. Note, it will be gooey, and that’s normal. Place bowl in a warm location (laundry room with the drying going? pantry?) and allow the dough to rise for one hour (a little longer doesn’t hurt either).
After about an hour the dough will have risen close to the top of the bowl. Sprinkle an additional 1/4 cup of flour on top of the dough. Then, using a spatula, place dough on a lightly-floured surface. Knead slightly and roll, with a pin (or with your hands if you’re more of an expert!), into desired shape. Grab a few cookie sheets and sprinkle a couple teaspoons of cornmeal evenly on baking surfaces to avoid a sticky mess (plus the texture of the pizza crust will be better). Place your shaped dough on the cookie sheets. Your dough is now ready to be adorned with any toppings you wish.
This week I used a new one (to see it click here) that worked well in a time crunch but it was not very good re-heated. Sometimes I just start throwing things in a bowl and hope the crust works. Actually two weeks ago I did this and it was soooo good but the bad thing is, I can't remember my ratios.Friday I also made for the second time ever the absolute BEST pecan sandies. They taste just like Keebler's. I made one batch pecan and then substituted almonds in the second batch with a little almond extract and they were both great.
The Best Pecan Sandies Ever
These are the best pecan shortbread cookies ever.
Pecan Sables (from Gourmet Magazine)
3/4 cup pecans (3 oz), toasted and cooled
32 pecan halves (3 oz)
2/3 cup plus 2 tble. confectioners sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick (1/2 cup) uns. butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg, separated
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Pulse toasted pecans with 2 tablespoons confectioners sugar in a food processor until finely ground. Whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl.
Beat together butter, remaining 2/3 cup confectioners sugar, and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg yolk and beat well. Add flour and ground-pecan mixture and mix at low speed until just combined, 30 seconds to 1 minute. (Dough will be crumbly but will hold together when squeezed.)
Halve dough and roll out 1 half between 2 sheets of wax paper until 1/4 inch thick (about a 9-inch round). Cut out as many rounds as possible with cookie cutter and arrange about 2 inches apart on buttered large baking sheets, reserving scraps. Roll out and cut remaining dough in same manner. Gather scraps, then reroll and cut in same manner.
Beat egg white until frothy, then brush tops of rounds lightly with egg white. Put a pecan half on top of each round, then brush pecan lightly with egg white.
Bake cookies in middle of oven until tops are pale golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets on racks 2 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.
Makes 32 cookies 
Saturday- Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos found at Our Best Bites, they were really good, we only had giant burrito sized tortillas so I used those but they turned out good. Our family loves white sauce chicken enchiladas but I think that we will probably be seeing more of these taquitos in our future.
Sheffer and Yvette (bottom left) are great cooks, and experiment with flavors from all around the World. I have had some great food over the past 19 years at their house. Abigail (top row green shirt) is one of my closest childhood friends we met when we were Five, my family was moving in across the street and she toddled over to meet us. She found out it was my birthday and brought me a present, green lipstick that turned red when you put it on.
Anyway this chicken is something I have had at their house for as long as I can remember there are a lot of variations you can do with it so bare with me while I share the secret and all its components.
Chicken Teriyaki a la Clark
1 c light soy (or you can sub ½ C. hosin and ½ C. soy which tastes really good too)
2 c water
½ c sugar
A couple grinds of fresh black pepper
1-2 Tbsp fresh ginger, chopped
2-3 cloves, chopped
2 Tbsp cornstarch (add more if you like a thicker sauce when it is done cooking make a slur with 1/4 C. cold water and 1 Tbsp. cornstarch then stir that in)
1-2 lbs chicken, here is where you can do a lot of variation, you can get a whole fryer chicken pre-cut and put all the pieces skin and all into the pot, I think this comes out a little greasy, what I really like is boneless skinless chicken thighs, you can use breast too but thighs stay more moist, or for even more flavor buy bone-in chicken thighs grill them then pull off the meat and put it in this mixture to cook for a little bit. Okay enough about that.
Take all the ingredients put them in a pan leave uncovered. Bring the mixture to a boil then turn it down nice and low so it just simmers.
Sunday I tried it in the crockpot with boneless skinless breasts cut in chunks cooked it on low for 4 hours and that worked well.
This is so simple but tastes so good. Serve it over rice with fresh juicy pineapple on the side and it is so yummy.
Monday- Gnocchi in a Balsamic Reduction featured on the blog How Sweet It Is. I like her blog a lot. I made Homemade whole-wheat gnocchi (just used the gnocchi recipe not the sauce). But they didn't turn out quite right because I didn't have a ricer for my potatoes. And we added zucchini rounds and fresh sugar snap pea pods that were blanched for 3 minutes. If I made this again these are the changes I would make:- Buy store bought gnocchi
- Reduce my balsamic more (I didn't let mine get as thick as I she did)
- Make more garlic and basil butter and fry the gnocchi after they cook until a nice golden brown then drizzle just a little bit of balsamic reduction on top
Her really nice picture with gnocchi that was probably really goodvs.
My nasty day-old picture gnocchi, haha which would you rather eat?
But at least I am honest with all of you and tell you like it really is.
Tuesday- Right now I am baking No-Kneed Dutch Oven Bread, this is a fantastic crusty bread recipe, I really love it. I make it pretty often. It goes great with soups and Sunday Crockpot diners but it is also fantastic if you spread a slice with butter rub on garlic and grate fresh Parmesan cheese on it then.... grill both sides in a frying pan, yumm, or the next morning with Nutella on it for breakfast, yumm. I baked two loafs and I know we probably won't have any left tomorrow morning.
To accompany that delicious bread we are having Roasted Chicken with marjoram butter and roasted veggies: onions, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes and carrots.Sorry if any of you were bored to tears with this post, and I shout out major props to all those food bloggers out there, I didn't even document one dish step-by-step and I am exhausted. At least I have some great bread and roasted chicken to nurse my exhaustion.
