Mmm. Plethora. Now I need to go watch Three Amigos.   But seriously- in addition to the ground beef, I have stew beef, brisket, eye round, bottom round, strip steaks, a tenderloin roast destined for our Christmas Day dinner, short ribs, one brisket, shoulder roast and prime rib.  Hoo-wee.

Ways I plan on using the ground beef already:

• Spaghetti & Meatballs
• The Very Best Salisbury Steak Ever (aka the only one I’ve ever enjoyed)
• Ground Beef Stew over Garlic Mashed (this is a new one that I’ve been saving)
• Cottage Pie (recipe coming- my girlfriend who split the cow with me has a very handsome British husband who can cook. I begged her to get a good recipe for me. I have great friends.)
• Irish Beef Hand Pies
• Chili con Carne
• lower fat Hamburger & Sour Cream Casserole (another new one I’ve been saving)
• meatloaf (because I love Alton Brown, I’m gonna try his)
• tacos (yes, I totally use the box from the supermarket), nachos (this will be an on the fly night), and lasagna (using the sauce from spaghetti & meatballs recipe)

Aside from being three days late, this month has been a hot mess for menu planning. Yes, I planned, but more often than not this month has been a fly by the seat of my pants kind of dinner planning, which means we’ve been eating kind of crappy. I think I’m in post-vaca mourning right now, heading into what I expect to be an extremely busy summer with Boo in both school and camp, trying to get Moo into some swim lessons, and myself taking yet another class towards my nursing degree.  suitNtie is working his tail off and coming home later than usual these days and it makes for a screwy, crazy dinnertime before the bedtime rituals begin.  Hopefully, it all settles soon. In the meantime, I’m going to not expect too much of myself for the rest of this month.  As I sit here eating four Bagel Bites for lunch, I think I need to stop fooling myself for the next two weeks and be a bit more realistic.

The next (uninspiring) installment of the Kitchen’s menu plan…

16. FFY- I am out celebrating a friend’s birthday with a margarita in hand.
17. steak on the grill
18. n/a – we are at a big family graduation party
19. Happy Father’s Day!!! filet and sauteed shrimp, arugula salad, and chocolate cake
20. pork cutlets with arugula and apples
21. grilled marinated chicken breasts
22.  pancakes for kiddos, FFY for me and suitNtie (it’s video game night for him)
23.  chef salads (at home date night- hoping to find the League’s second season on netflix?)
24. roast beef with garlic and cherry tomatoes
25. FFY Buffet (could turn into french dip sandwiches with leftover beef, yum)
26. burgers and fresh picked strawberry shortcake for dessert!
27. chicken pot pie
28.  comfort food night:  grilled cheese and campbell’s soup
29. hot dogs and french fries
30. breakfast for dinner:  cheerios with bananas and yogurt

no, this is not my freezer.

Growing up, I remember watching my grandmother run her home, and later on, my mother do the same. Sure enough, once suitNtie and I were living together, Nana was one of the first people I called. She gave me the run down on what prices were the best for different cuts of meat, poultry and fish. I wrote it down and stalked weekly circulars for the prices I was looking for, purchased a stand freezer for storage, and my journey began.

Cooking has always been a hobby for me. suitNtie presented a challenge. He grew up differently than I did, and had different food preferences and tolerances. While he has sometimes restricted me, for the most part, his ideas about food have forced me beyond my cooking comfort zone and I’ve found (and shared) some lovely recipes along the way.

In any case, I got sidetracked…long story short, one of the ways I economize these days is stretching meals. Because our children are so young, I’m really cooking for about three full servings per meal. Rarely does a recipe calculate like this. I end up with leftovers.

For a few years, suitNtie brought those to work for lunch. Now, though, his company buys lunch every day. I find more and more times that I split a recipe and half goes into the freezer and half goes onto the table. Which is fine, but I need to come up with some sort of way to inventory my freezer. I end up pawing through it every time I make a meal plan.

Right now, for example, off the top of my head, I know I have pasta e fagioli (minus the macaroni), the filling for orange beef lettuce wraps, a baggie of swiss steak, two containers of butternut squash and corn soup, one container of plain, cooked ground beef to be used at a later date (the other half was used in a recipe and it was already defrosted- use it or lose it!), one container of homemade spaghetti sauce, one baggie of banana nut muffins, and the packaged and portioned meats and poultry and fish I’ve gotten on sale.

Today, I am making a chicken soup. We’re not having it for dinner, but I am making it and freezing it for later use (see chicken fricasee on the menu at the end of this month, for one).

If you have any ideas on how I can (neatly) keep a running inventory, I’d love to hear them in the comments.

MGCK has had a bit of a drought. It was a perfect storm of events, for sure. A short list:

1. site was repeatedly hacked to the point of not being able to load
2. was contemplating redesign anyway, prompting my taking it down temporarily (no, you didn’t miss anything, I haven’t finished for the reason below)
3. suitNtie was very unexpectedly released from his job.  At the end of June, we returned from a vacation. Two days later, he came home early with the bad news. Fortunately, he started his new job the day after Labor Day. But this leads into…
4. I had suitNtie at home, which threw major wrenches into my lifestyle and my day-to-day. Not that I don’t love my husband…but it threw me for a loop to have him home and I didn’t adjust well.

In any case, I’m back.   Informal menu planning this week…so no official post, but here’s the pertinent information:

Sunday – Easy Beef Stroganoff (repeat recipe, gotta love crockpot and only a handful of ingredients)
Monday – roasted turkey breast, peas and a corn casserole if I can dig up the recipe from the goddess of all British recipes, my friend Kerri.
Tuesday – the best salisbury steak and herby mashed potatoes ever (repeat recipe)
Wednesday – pork with parsnips and grapes (from Everyday Food magazine. It’s not my usual flavor profile, but I was intrigued. Here’s hoping.)
Thursday – roast beef with chili/honey mashed carrots
Friday – FFY Buffet
Saturday – we are out of town for a birthday party, so we’ll play it by ear.

1 4-pound pork shoulder picnic or butt roast (preferably boneless)
8 to 10 garlic cloves (peeled)
Adobo (enough to rub all over the roast)

Preheat oven to 325 F.  With a knife, stab 8 to 10 holes evenly around the roast, including the top, bottom and sides and push the peeled garlic cloves deeply into the holes.  Rub adobo all over the roast and into the holes.

Place the roast, fat side up in a roasting pan and cover with a lid or tinfoil. Roast for 30 minutes per pound. The roast is finished when a meat thermometer, inserted in the thickest part of meat, reads 160 F.

With regards to burgers…how do you like them? What’s the best burger you’ve ever had?

For me…it makes me want to cry, actually. I fell in love with a burger I had at Ruby Tuesday called the Boston Blue burger. It had a barbeque sauce made with Sam Adams, fried onion strings and blue cheese on it. It was a little bit of heaven.  That said, after I ate it, I did the one thing no one should ever do when they come home from a restaurant:  check the nutrition info online.

That burger was 1400 calories. I kid you not.  For that reason, I’ve never had it again.  Sadness.

I welcome your stories of burger gluttony in the comments.

(Plus I have been planning ahead in anticipation of my upcoming vacation!!!)

Yesterday, I waxed poetically about my love for sandwiches using Thanksgiving leftovers. With regards to leftovers…I generally eat all my leftovers with sandwiches. But what I’d love to hear are other ways to use them! I love the low prices around Thanksgiving for turkey…I got a fresh turkey for 79 cents a pound this year and was very happy.  But other times of the year, it’s far pricier. My plan next year is to buy a lot of turkey (in the form of turkey breasts) so that we can enjoy it more often.  I don’t want to do a Thanksgiving dinner every time, though.

How do you use your leftovers?

All year long, I *thoroughly* enjoy a “Thanksgiving” sandwich.  My idea is turkey, cranberry, stuffing (and that stuffing and the turkey better be at least warm), on a crusty, peasant-y bread or roll.  I will love you forever if you actually grill it like a panini, and have the cranberry sauce squeeze out on the sides so I have to lick it off my fingers. Mayo and/or cheese is sacrilege. Don’t put it NEAR my sandwich. Also, don’t touch my sandwich with anything that goes into a salad. Also wrong. There is no crunch in my Thanksgiving sandwich, just ooey, gooey warm happiness.

Come to think of it, my second favorite sandwich, a club, also features turkey.  I have a very, VERY soft spot for my elementary school field trip standby, peanut butter and grape jelly, though.

What are your favorites?

I’ll be curious to see what others prefer!

Many of us grew up with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as staples in our diets. What’s your favorite sandwich now, as an adult? For me, nothing hits the spot quite like a turkey club with well done bacon.  I skip the mayo and usually have a stone ground mustard on it, something earthy.

Post your favorites in the comments!