why
a lot of questions get asked about this section of my web site. most are not flattering. most would in fact fall into the 'do you know you're a lunatic?' column as far as questions go.

here's the deal. my wife hated having our food budget double what we allotted each month/year and that included the loads of food we routinely threw out because we never got to making it. for me, i got tired of wanting to make something for dinner and either not having an ingredient in the house or having said ingredient be frozen (microwaves have done for cooking what corey feldman has done for acting).

so the wife suggested we start making a weekly menu. i immediately nixed that thinking the last thing i need is another weekly to-do. i countered with a monthly menu. she agreed, albeit hesitantly. this is where it began.

as for it's publication on the web, it is to serve as enticement or invitation to our friends and neighbors to join us for any meal they might find interesting or appealing. i've been responding to dinner invitations with 'what are they having?' since i was old enough to ask 'what are they having?'. my mother told me that was rude and the last thing i'd ever want to make anyone is rude, so here you don't have to sweat asking, you can just look it up along with every other soul on the planet.

to explain the ritual, it goes as such.

sundays - new dish night
we can only put things on here that have never been made, by us, before. this is to bring new blood into our rotation and we picked sundays because we have a little more time and are typically not famished given our usual weekend activities.

mondays - staple night, aka comfort foods
this is our brain dead night where we eat those things which are easy to prepare and guaranteed to please.

tuesday to thursday - standard rotation
on these days we alternate between fish, meat, rice, pasta and a wild card. this is just a hodge podge of things we've made before and like to various degrees. we mix it up to try to avoid the ruts we have been known to get into it.

fridays/saturday - open nights
while we may not be the most social creatures, we do on ocassion go out or to friends for meals. and on a lazy and alone evening, these are good leftover nights.

additional notes:
if one wishes to partake in a particular meal, you have to let us know by sunday because that is when mart goes to the grocery.

steak nights are limited to a single person or couple and that person is almost always my sister-in-law (you gotta be quick on your feet to beat her to the punch).

recipes we totally like are listed in the recipe index. i understand palettes vary widely, but these are dishes i'm totally confident recommending to the average human (american human at least). we get most of our stuff from 'cooking light' and friends but do have a few other cookbooks we frequent. for me, the key to an effective cookbook, pictures, pictures and more pictures. let's call it a picture for every recipe. but i'm simple like that.

and lastly, bookguy says that i should post our shopping list which hangs on our fridge because 'people just won't know how crazy you truly are without seeing this'. so here that is.

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what i'm eating explained
goto the recipe index