Tuesday night's dinner was classic out of the freezer into the frying pan food. Ground beef and leftover tomato sauce were combined with olive oil, a fresh tomato, chopped onion and garlic, a bay leaf, oregano, salt, pepper, a scoop of beef demiglace (Williams Sonoma indulgence that I keep in my fridge) and a splash of white wine in my brand new Calphalon saucepan. I had noticed that the cheap non-stick pans I bought six years ago were peeling. For at least the last two years. Don't tell my mom how long. When I mentioned the peeling issue to her, she suggested that I might be ingesting carcinogens. Since I don't have a wedding registry coming up, I'll have to acquire new cookware slowly, but I bought two new stainless steel saucepans and a new stockpot over the weekend.
I don't know if I can credit the pan, but the meat sauce turned out really delicious over some linguini fini. Too bad I ended up with so much that I had to put some of it back into the freezer. Am I making any progress here at all? Maybe if I had made a salad or vegetable...but I was too tired so I just ate a banana and called it a day.
Day 3: Zucchini soup with rosemary biscuits and brie
I have always loved biscuits. They're bready and soft and savory. Sometimes they're fluffy like cupcakes and sometimes they are dense as scones. They taste delicious with honey butter. Seasoned with herbs or cheese or flavored with pumpkin, biscuits are a satisfying food. And they're easier to make than yeast breads. A child could make them.
As a kid, I spent long summer days alone at home before I was old enough to be employed and I generally kept out of trouble (phone bill incident notwithstanding). But I was intrigued by the kitchen. I poured through my mom's cookbooks looking for something easy to make that would leave no trace behind. I'm not sure why it had to be a secret. Maybe I thought my parents would disapprove. More likely they would think I was a weirdo for randomly making biscuits. In any case, the drop biscuits were the easiest recipe I could find. Flour, salt, baking powder, butter, and milk or buttermilk. No rolling the dough, just scoop out the biscuits and drop them on the baking pan or into a soup or stew. (I also really like eating raw dough, but that's not for everyone.) They bake up in 10 minutes or so and even though there is butter in the recipe, I really can't resist a little more melted butter on top.
Zucchini soup This is an easy healthy soup. I skip the bread and herbs and just make the soup. Add a squeeze of lemon, a dollop of plain non-fat yogurt, or a swirl of buttermilk to elevate the flavor.
Rosemary biscuits (topping for this root vegetable pie, which is a great vegetarian entree)
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