Dinners this year

We are ten days into the new year, and though it wasn't a resolution of mine to cook more at home, I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job. Unfortunately, I should've made it a resolution to take more photos and post more about the food. Blah! Sorry. It's such a mad scramble in our house once family meal is served that I barely have time to think about feeding myself, let alone take photos of it all.

Anyway, here's a recap of some of the things I've made recently.

-pizzas
-flat iron steak salad
-beef yaki soba (made with leftover flat iron steak)
-orrechietti pasta with tomato sauce of vegetables & maple breakfast sausage
-ground pork in soy sauce with flavored hard boiled eggs with brown rice
-acorn squash soup
-all sorts of vegetable dishes, like roasted red potatoes, glazed carrots, & sauteed broccoli

And, this is why I should've been taking more pictures...I can't remember all of the stuff I've cooked. I know I've made more than these. Oh well, maybe I'll start doing better.

Some thoughts on dinner this week:
-pizza; maybe arugula with proscuitto or pear gorgonzola???
-roasted delicata squash
-Costco battered halibut with celeriac slaw
-crispy chicken salad (Okay, I'll admit, we have a HUGE box of dino nuggets from Costco that I'll cook up, chop up and throw into the salad; not fancy at all).
**Any suggestions?

As I sign off, I want to say that this isn't about creating a bunch of fancy food for my family. It's about eating, and getting by each day with two busy boys tuggy at my legs while trying to cook dinner. I want to remember the things I fed my family when we were first starting out, and see how we have evolved through the years. I would love to make complicated, fresh, organic meals for them all the time, but it's not my reality. But, I try my best. And, truth be told, I have dinner cooked for us once a week to top it off. Yup, I'm so lucky that my friends JM & Hannah have started a little dinner making service that we participate in. Love it.

I feel so blessed each and every day for the food that comes to our table every meal. We are so lucky to be able to fill our stomachs and our hearts even when we think "There's nothing to eat in the house!" There really is always something to eat in our house, and I am thankful.

Homemade Pizza

Alice Water's pizza dough recipe. I made the dough last night, but ran out of time to make it for dinner. I let it rise slowly in the fridge for almost a day, then took it out about an hour before I needed to start dinner, divided it into two balls and let them rise. After about an hour, I flattened both balls into 5-6 inch discs and allowed them to rest for about 15 minutes, then rolled them out to about 10 inches each.

For the base, I opted not to make an actual pizza sauce. Instead, I combined chopped garlic, salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil in a small bowl, then brushed the mixture on the dough. Next came a layer of crushed San Marzano tomatoes (as seen in picture #1 below), then a layer of shredded gruyere cheese, and finally, a sprinkling of chiffonade basil.

This pie had Salumi's salame.
The other pie had chicken & balsamic cippolini onions.

Into a 500 degree F oven for 10 minutes, and out came to beautiful, puffy, delicious pizzas!