What We're Working With ... (or without!)

So, before we start talking about cookin', we gotta give the lay of the land. First... when we woke up this morning there was hardly anything in the pantry or the refrigerator. Can you make dinner out of flour, a can of black beans, some orzo, and a pickle?!? Okay, I'm sure someone can... but not me! So we had to go shopping, and before that we had to have a plan.

We learned a long time ago that if we don't plan out the meals for the week we end up with 5 o'clock frazzle, trying to figure out what to make. This results in more eating out and multiple stops by the grocery store. Both are bad on the bank account. So, every Sunday we sit down and make a plan for the week and then go shopping.

This week our plan kicks off with this tempting tasty from Alton Brown. So, using the Whole Foods Market Recipes app we built our menu and shopping list all in one handy place. Yeah, we looked a bit crazy walking around Whole Paycheck marking off ingredients on our iPad (yes, Tanya was a bit embarrassed by the whole parade!), but hey... it worked and we were in and out in no time.

Here's what our pantry looked like post-shopping... (Houston, we have food!)



Time to get cookin'! But first, a shot of the lovely 1960's (?) oven that came with our terribly charming 1970's tri-level home.



I'd love to upgrade to something like this ... or this (isn't that color delish?!?). I'd even be happy with this since it's at least wider than 24 inches. But, the stove I have works fine (darned old technology!) and upgrading would mean we'd have to also upgrade the cabinets and that's a game of dominoes that's just not the cards right now.

What's in the cards? Pork Wellington ... coming up next!