The Sweet Smell of Success (and of food cooking in the kitchen)

Picture it - Friday night.  The dishes are done.  The satisfaction is huge.  I have accomplished my goal this week - to make delicious, quality meals at home, even though my days were sure to be hectic and my nights harried.  I've already given you the rundown on Tuesday and Wednesday's dinners, so here's the skinny on Thursday and Friday at mi casa:

Thursday was a day for the history books.  I haven't really told you much about my poor, unsuspecting husband.  Let's refer to him as "Mr. T."  Mr. T is one of the pickiest grown-ups I have ever met.  Ultimately, he is the is yin to my yang, but in the kitchen, it really frosts my cookies when his dietary preferences reach a stalemate with my culinary escapades.  You see, I will eat almost anything.  Almost.  But I will at least give it a good old-fashioned college try before it is deemed inedible.  Mr. T is still holding grudges against food that wronged him from his childhood.  And one of the biggest offenders in his book is the tomato.  Now, he loves Italian food, and red sauce is fine, but if he can SEE an actual tomato in his food - fugeddaboutit.  This takes us to Thursday.  On the menu for the evening was Quick Crisp Ravioli with Roasted Tomato Sauce.  I had shown Mr. T the picture on the recipe before I included it in our week's menu, just to make sure that I had his buy-in.  The sauce is made from halved grape tomatoes.  You can SEE the tomatoes in the sauce.  But Mr. T said he would give it a whirl (a victory in itself!), and so it was added to the menu.  Now, I used heirloom cherry tomatoes that I got from Trader Joe's market, so the mix was very colorful.  Red, orange, yellow, even a few dark purple ones.  Beautiful if you ask me.  Scary if you ask Mr. T.  But with enough gentle coaxing (ok, forceful pushing) he tried it.  And he liked it.  Mr. T LIKED it.  Granted, he ate about three-quarters of his tomatoes, but all of his ravioli were gone.  His quote was, "If I got this in a restaurant, I wouldn't be upset."  High praise indeed.  A quick note for the recipe - I modified it slightly.  I used Buittoni's Spicy Beef and Sausage Ravioli, and I added more salt than the recipe called for.  I may have used between a teaspoon and a teaspoon and a half of salt - just add slowly and to taste.  Also, I cooked the tomatoes for 4 minutes instead of 2.  This helped break down the tomato-y appearance a bit more, and made it more sauce-like.  After I plated the food, I sliced some thin ribbons of basil and sprinkled them on top for garnish, but it really packed some good flavor in there.  Mangia!

Friday's meal brought a few twists and turns, but I was prepared.  On the menu was Roasted Lemon-Garlic Chicken with Potatoes.  Thursday night, Mr. T tells me that he invited 2 friends to dinner for Friday.  OK.  No worries.  I have a whole chicken!  That can definitely feed 4 people.  I got up Friday morning, read my recipe, and discovered that I was supposed to let the chicken rest in the fridge with the homemade rub overnight.  $hit.  Oh well.  I figure it's like when you have to give a presentation at work.  Nobody knows what you planned to say, so if you forget a part, the only person who knows is you.  And maybe your boss.  And besides, your coworkers stopped paying attention 2 minutes into the speech, and now they are all emailing and facebooking on their blackberries anyway.  Back to my morning.  I take the bird out of the fridge, make the rub, and schmear the mixture under the skin.  I put the chicken back in the fridge and go to work.  Fast forward 10 hours - I come home, preheat the oven and put the bird in by 7.  Guests are coming at 8.  Whew - so far I'm on track.  I decide to make a salad to go with the chicken and potatoes because I have an irrational fear of people leaving my house hungry.  I make a quick vinagrette of lemon juice (to go with the chicken), deli mustard, honey, and olive oil, and I toss it with some organic mixed greens that we already have on hand and add a few cucumber slices.  Still on track - sweet.  I decide to celebrate by pouring myself a glass of Chardonnay.  I start on the potatoes.  Sip.  I boil the water.  Sip.  I read the recipe.  Double sip.  I was supposed to put the potatoes in cold water and bring to a boil?  Sip.  Oh well.  I add the potatoes to the boiling water and set the timer for 8 minutes.  Sip, sip, sip.  The guests arrived and everything turned out just fine.  At least I didn't hear any complaints, nor were there any leftovers to have for lunch on Saturday.  Again, I modified the recipe slightly here too.  I misted the chicken with olive oil and liberally sprinkled the skin with Livia's seasoning salt.  If you can't find Livia's, you can use kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper.  The recipe also calls to remove the skin before serving, but it was extremely tasty with all that seasoning going on, so I kept it.

So I have to call my 4-day work week a success.  Not only did I manage to stay on track with my recipes and avoid the budgetary and caloric pitfalls of takeout, I taught myself how to use a pressure cooker and I got Mr. T to almost make nice with a 30-something year old adversary.  I may have rocked his world and elevated his everyday.  Happy Cooking! -B