Dinner Redemption

Since I have a bit of time on my hands, I like to root out nifty recipes, play around with ingredients and try to fix old ones or try out new ones I find in one of my several magazines. (more on the magazine thing later)

So yes, yesterday I took on a nifty looking pasta salad from Rachel Ray's mag and paired it with lovely grilled chicken rolls with tomato paste and basil (from the window planter!). I thought it was great. I love him to bits but mind you, but whenever I ask what Aaron thinks of something he turns into Mr. Food critic out of Top Chef. He liked the chicken and took no issue with it, but the pasta salad... It was a bow tie pasta with arugula (from my window planter!) red bell pepper, toasted pine nuts, boiled egg, Parmesan, olive oil and in the place of an acid, lemon juice and zest. As Rachel would say, "delish!" It's a great summer dish. He liked it, but thought the lemon was a little too overpowering then tried to figure out how to make it better. I can totally understand how the poor chefs on that show feel when their dishes are being critiqued. BUT, it kind of makes dinner a game. I try to make it so that he can't find a weak point in the dish.

So today I went all out just to shut him up. I spruced up my recipe for country fried steak and gravy (Montreal steak seasoning, It was a gamble but it paid off big), paired it with mashed potatoes and a lovely salad with the remainder of the pine nuts (I had a few left, so I figured why not). He didn't say a word and had seconds of everything! VICTORY!!!!!!!

So yes, the magazine thing. I have no idea how this happened but I get a lot of friggin' magazines and I don't subscribe to all of them.. The ones I subscribe to are the Rachel Ray magazine, Martha Stewart, Women's Health and I still get Time from my former work subscription. But somehow, I also get a ton of mystery magazines. I ended my subscription to Ski Magazine, but started getting it again two years after. Then there are the others like Architecture Digest, Cooks County and a few more I can't even think of. Again, I have no idea how or why. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if I start getting all kinds of sketchy magazines that will make the mailman think I'm some kind of degenerate. That, or the mailman is going to get angry with me for breaking his back with the added weight.