Sunday, January 30, 2011

I've been on hiatus

I think the title says it all - I've been on a cooking (and, therefore, blogging) hiatus the past few weeks. Between the doc working odd shifts this month, and the downtime from all the holiday celebrating, we've been taking the lazy way out and either going out, ordering out or not really eating dinner at all.

However, we took a lovely weekend trip to Temecula, a wine country area about 45 minutes north of us last weekend, and there is a blog post about all the fabulous wine (photos included!) to come shortly.

It was Restaurant Week in San Diego last week, so we took advantage of the great deals at a few of the places and tried out a seafood restaurant (pasta option for me, thankyouverymuch!) and a restaurant in Balboa Park that had a little of everything. My pasta at Harbor House was quite tasty - sun dried tomatoes, spinach and a cream sauce - while the doc got some kind of carribean-flavored shimp that he was not a big fan of. Prado was a big hit with both of us - I had a white truffle and mushroom risotto which is still making my mouth water as I think back on it, and the doc had a very tender and saucy short rib dish. Restaurant Week is such a great concept in any city, to let you try a new restaurant (or visit an old favorite) and try some of their signature dishes from a fixed menu for a less-than-usual price. I'm looking forward to the next one soon!

Outside of our Restaurant Week foray, we've ordered in pizza, gotten Chinese takout and headed out to a local watering hole to take advantage of their happy hour food specials. Lazy? Yes. Convenient (no dishes, no prep time, no menu planning, no grocery shopping required)? Also Yes.

However, we can't eat out like this forever, so we've been trying to get back on track with home-cooked meals. I'm really trying to make meals that are tasty, a bit different than the everyday fare we're used to, but also not super time-consuming or requiring a ton of ingredients.

So, the other night, we were lounging on the couch and I decided to make risotto. It's essentially rice, chicken broth and cheese, and you can dress it up with whatever you want. Super simple, yet so delicious. We made it a bit more interesting with some chicken, peas, carrots, garlic powder and coarse black pepper. It only took about 30 minutes to make and it is something that can be so versatile that I can serve it again soon, but with different ingredients to change up the flavor profile.

On the menu tonight is tequila-lime steak fajitas, and tomorrow is sweet and sour chicken. I'm thinking of making ethnic dishes all this week to utilize some of the recipes I've earmarked in my cookbooks and to bring a little different flair to our typical menu. I'll keep you posted on how it all goes - more regularly than I've been doing, I promise.

Here's to a great week - Cheers!

Maureen

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