Finding Inspiration. And hopefully redemption.

I awoke this morning inspired to cook.  I can't exactly say why, or what was responsible (though I can say with assurance that it was NOT the phlegm-filled cough that one of my neighbors has felt it necessary to share with us for the past 3 months and with which I was awakened at 8:00 am).  Sorry, gross.  It's possible that the responsibility lies in the ruined bread I attempted yesterday, or in the shattered baking dish of my last post.   Maybe it's the fact that I had popcorn for dinner 3 nights out of 6 last week while the kids and I tried to make educated guesses about which films will get the Best Picture nominee...?

Whatever the reason, I got up and starting pouring over cookbooks while I sipped my Peet's, and then made my way to Mecca.

Here's the plan:

1. Curried Vegetable Potpie compliments of Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home. This is a recipe Natalie spied recently and we both agreed that it seemed worth a try.  I think I love the concept of this book - composed meals categorized by the four seasons.  And Martha so nicely offers a "preparation schedule" for each meal as well.  I think it could easily work if I was looking for a meal to serve company. The day-to-day drawback, of course, is finding a complete meal that would please both Natalie and Jack.  I'm not sure there is one in here that fits that description.  No matter, I'm used to cobbling meals together.  So, instead of being accompanied by butter lettuce with brie and pears (yum!), we'll make Ina's creamy mustard vinaigrette and toss it with romaine, which we planned to do last week but didn't get to.  I may try to make the Spiced Lemon Cookies that round out this meal - at least then I'd be 2 for 3. Curry filling in the foreground below - which will be topped with puff pastry. 

2. While thumbing through MSDaH, I came across another meal that caught my eye: Sausages with red-onion gravy, rosemary yorkshire pudding, and shredded tuscan kale salad (we'll leave out the spiced prunes in red wine, for now).   Natalie will have to substitute a meatless sausage, of course, but otherwise it just might work!  If only I remember to follow the schedule: 1. make pudding batter, and let rest; 2. shred kale and mix dressing; 3. Bake puddings; 4; Meanwhile, cook sausages and make gravy; 5. add kale and cheese to dressing.  A snap, no?!

3. Roasted chicken breasts, haricots verts with shallots and mashed potatoes with garlic confit.  I'm leaning on a tried and true recipe for the chicken (Barbara Kafka), a doubtlessly perfect though as yet untried recipe from Ina for the beans, and a recipe I plan to make up (?!) using the garlic confit ala Thomas Keller that currently simmers happily atop its diffuser (see the small pan above).

4. Ina's herb marinated pork loin and wheatberry salad with a vegetable to be name later.  Hmm...  I have some carrots...?

5. Creamy cauliflower soup with torn croutons and red beet chips.  Who else but Thomas Keller?  Thinking just a tossed salad with a basic vinaigrette with this.

6. Tom is also offering us Meatballs (shh, they're stuffed with fresh mozzarella) with Pappardelle this week and I think I'll serve it with Ina's parmesan roasted asparagus, because I think if I say salad one more time, I'll have a mutiny on my hands.  Today I made the meatballs (below) and oven roasted tomato sauce (see middle of photo above and contents of my sachet at the top) and can only say that I am once again amazed at what tomatoes can become when you cook them.

OK, there they are - my hopes and dreams for the culinary week starting 1/18/10.  We'll see how far I get - though I have high hopes given the amount of prep I did today.