It’s cool here today so I’m doing a chicken pasta alfredo with roasted garlic and a salad.
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It’s been a cold rainy day - beef stew tonight in the instapot with a nice crusty bread.
Cold, rainy here today too so chili hit the spot tonight!
Vegetable soup—for a cold and rainy night—along with a salad (mesclun greens, baby cucumbers, and vinaigrette with balsamic). H made a huge pot of the vegetable soup and we froze 3 quarts. He already had frozen chicken stock and used celery, onions, carrots, white potatoes, tomatoes, string beans, and peas and herbs (parsley, tarragon, thyme) for the soup.
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soup sounds good, I may put up a pot of mushroom barley just to have something simmering away today (it’s nasty here).
Making round two of latkes tonight, as well.
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I read @Bromfield2 post and totally decided to make homemade vegetable soup tonight! Easy sides of clementines and some homemade garlic cheddar biscuits.
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Carne asada and fish tacos tonight. We have a lot of ripe avocados we need to use up so we will have guacamole and chips along with margaritas before dinner.
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Well, yesterday was eating up leftovers so we finished a bag of Costco spinach and the last 2/3s of a rotisserie chicken. We also finished the split pea soup Fd had made. We have a lot of nice fresh veggies in the fridge as well as some roast beef and 3 pounds of frozen grass fed beef. I’m curious about what D would like to do with all of these things.
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We are inundated with lemons from our tree right now, so I made a lemon tart today. I freeze a ton of zest and juice for summer lemonade and other recipes. Oh, and of course, martini garnish. 
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@ChoatieMom Beautiful lemon tree and tart! I’m envious. I tried to grow a lemon tree in MA, but once I brought it in for the winter, that was it!!
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Gotta say I love seeing the pix!
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I’m loving the pix, too. I have a dwarf lemon tree that comes inside and nearly dies each winter. We get a few measly, dry lemons off of it each year. Certainly nothing to make a gorgeous tart with. Looks great, @ChoatieMom
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I have a lemon tree which spend May- October outside and winters in my family room. I only ever get one or two lemons from it - but they are large
Lemons|666x500
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Recipe for the lemon tart??
Here you go.
LEMON TART
Sweet Pastry Dough:
½ cup + 1 tblsp unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
In a bowl, combine the butter and sugar. With mixer set on low, beat until smooth, about 3 minutes.
Add the egg and beat until creamy. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour and baking powder until just incorporated. Then, beat with the mixer set on low until the dough is even mixed and clings together, 2-3 minutes
Shape the dough into a ball, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or as long as 2 weeks. Bring to room temperature before using.
Tart:
1 tblsp + 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
4 lemons
4 eggs
1 ¾ cups sugar
½ cup water
Preheat oven to 400. Brush the bottom and sides of a 10-inch removable-bottom tart pan with the melted butter.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a 12-inch round, 1/8 inch thick. Transfer the dough to the tart pan and press gently to fit. Trim the pastry even with the pan rim.
Line the pastry-lined pan with waxed paper and add pie weights. Bake until the pastry is half cooked, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, cut three paper-thin slices from the center of 1 of the lemons and set aside. Grate the zest from that lemon and the remaining three into a bowl and set aside. Squeeze the juice from all the lemons through a fine-mesh sieve into a measuring cup; you should have about ½ cup juice.
Add the lemon juice and eggs to the zest and whisk until blended. Add 1 ¼ cup of the sugar and mix until well combined. Stir in the 1/3 cup melted butter.
As soon as the crust is half-cooked, remove from the oven and immediately remove the pie weights and waxed paper. Pour the citrus mixture into the warm tart and return it to the oven. Bake until the filling is set and the edges are golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small pan over medium-high heat, combine the remaining ½ cup sugar and water. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly to dissolve sugar. Add the reserved 3 lemon slices, reduce heat to low, and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside. When the tart is done, transfer it to a rack and remove the pan sides. Let cool completely.
Remove the lemon slices from the sugar-water, shaking briefly to remove any excess liquid, and arrange them in an overlapping pattern on the center of the tart. Transfer the tart to a serving platter and serve at room temperature.
Holidays done, back to some semblance of a routine! Still includes cooking. 
D2 is home for 3 months on a clinical rotation. She is reminding me that cooking simple can still be delicious and quick and introducing me to some new recipes.
Last night we took boneless chicken breast, marinated it for 30 minutes in Trader Joe’s Carolina bbq sauce (sort of vinegar/mustard based). Put it in a dutch oven after marinating, then topped with a little more bbq sauce, a chopped onion and some minced garlic. Baked in the oven (half lid on, half lid off) for about 30 minutes at 400. Shredded it and it was delicious! Very flavorful. Could have been put on a sandwich bun but we preferred it on a plate - served with homemade oven baked fries and a kale salad.
It was really satisfying - and easy!
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I decided to make individual Beef Wellingtons on New Year’s Day. It was my first attempt at making this and it was a hit with both H and D2. I served it with mashed potatoes and a fresh arugula salad and it was a great way to start 2021.
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@abasket - I have done something similar using a slow cooker. Just put chicken breasts in with some bbq sauce and let it cook all day. Delicious!
Tonight, used frozen veggies, frozen (thawed) chicken and a few other ingredients to make Japanese stew, Nishime! Yummy!
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Made this so very delicious pizza tonight using a thin refrigerator crust and a piece of flatbread. The balsamic “sauce” is key!
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