Dinners for the Week Ahead
SUNDAY
Christmas cookies all day over here. And the dishes to prove it! Peppermint bark, peanut butter blossoms, and the best of intentions to make Joy the Baker’s peanut butter balls. I’m heating up leftover bolognese for dinner and tossing a Caesar salad. I make this dressing in a glass jar and shake it up well. Let it come to room temperature before using up the leftover dressing and shake well. The bolognese is Marcella Hazan’s version that I make with both beef and pork. Insanely good. Be sure to let simmer for three hours minimum.
MONDAY
I have a rotisserie chicken I bought for weekend snacking that no one has touched. Yay for me. Chicken noodle soup it is. I already have some chicken stock and obviously the chicken, so I’m starting at step 2 of my recipe. I’ll keep the cooked egg noodles on the side because I’ve been on a steady diet of bread and cheese lately. Watch your email if you subscribe to my cooking school newsletter — the 2022 schedule is hitting your inbox this week!
TUESDAY
Getting caught up on all the things today. If you missed my recent Instagram recipe for Gingerbread Granola I highly suggest a batch asap (the recipe is in the post!). It was based on something similar that my friend Chelsea took to a girls’ weekend a couple of years back. Anything with candied ginger is a win in my book. I’ve been craving salmon, but my family is not supportive. I am seriously tempted to serve a frozen pizza for dinner because December/work/life/you name it. I want something healthy though, so I’m going for egg roll bowls. Lots of vegetables, and the cabbage is so delicious when it cooks down and soaks up the sauce. My kids are obsessed with rice, so maybe a little steamed sushi rice on the side.
WEDNESDAY
French onion dips in the slow cooker. I have a holiday brunch cooking class for my cooking school members tonight, so we’ll have French crepes for dessert! Again with the carbs! If you want to have your French onion dip like me, just serve the shredded meat with roasted vegetables. I have some shishito peppers to use up from my Hope Farms delivery, so making these for an after-school snack.
THURSDAY
All-day video shoot for membership lessons today, which means lots of leftovers. I’m also filming a new tutorial for my knife skills course on how to cut butternut squash. If you already own the course, it will show up automatically after we get it added. If you’re looking for a dinner idea, this stuffed eggplant parmesan from Smitten Kitchen looks so good.
FRIDAY
We have a fun corporate class today, full of favorite holiday cocktail recipes and appetizer recipes. Plus a big green salad with super simple salad dressing to balance it all out. You could make dinner out of the stuffed ciabatta recipe and call it a night. Don’t worry, you don’t have to make homemade ciabatta.
Ciabatta Flatbread with Proscuitto, Pesto, and Cheese
These warm little sandwiches make a great appetizer, or a luncheon item served alongside a simple green salad.
- 1 loaf ciabatta
- 12 slices prosciutto – thinly sliced, good-quality
- 3/4 pound soft white cheese, such as teleme, goat cheese or a combination of farmer’s cheese and fresh soft jack (not hard block jack)
- 1/2 cup fresh pesto, homemade or good-quality store-bought
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Cut bread in half lengthwise, remove some of the soft bread from the top and bottom (reserve for making homemade breadcrumbs, just store in a freezer bag in the freezer until the spirit moves you). Spread one side evenly with the cheese and the other side with the pesto. Lay the slices of prosciutto across the bread so that they hang over the edges slightly. Press the sandwich together.
- Place on a baking sheet and cook until warmed through, about 10-15 minutes.
- Let cool 1-2 minutes. Slice into 2-inch-wide lengths and if you’d like, cut those slices in half.
Leave a Reply