wednesday family dinners

For the past three Wednesdays, I've had my family over for dinner.  It's sorta becoming a tradition and I like it.  Dennis works insane hours right now and he's off on Wednesdays so I see it as the one night a week my family will get to hang out with him.  Plus, with him off it gives me a chance to clean up the house and go grocery shopping.  Pretty sweet arrangement if I do say so myself. 

I love to cook.  But it's hard to really try out new things when you have a husband who comes home at 11:30 p.m. every night, a 4-year-old who has become increasingly picky with age and a 6-month-old who only eats pureed stuff.  And I could care less about myself these days...if I don't eat at my mom's then I make myself something random for dinner, sometimes I only eat chips and salsa.  Yum.

The first Wednesday, Dennis barbequed chicken and I made pesto and salad and corn on the cob.  It was tasty.  (I made myself Trader Joe's chicken-less strips to have with the pesto.)  The second Wednesday, I made orecchiette pasta with white beans, parsley and balsamic vinegar with a salad - oh and a really good artichoke dip.  The third Wednesday, I made Jamie Oliver's Chile con Carne minus the carne...except I added smoked paprika, coriander and turmeric into the spice mix and used kidney beans, white cannelini beans and black beans instead of garbanzo beans.  Everyone liked it, even my dad who is not partial to spicy food.  Next time, I'm keeping the garbanzo beans and making a batch with ground beef since Dennis told me he likes his chili with meat.  I asked him for his opinion, at least he was honest!  I love Jamie Oliver and this cookbook is amazing!  I plan on making many more of his recipes.

I'm still looking for ideas for this Wednesday...I'm thinking Giada de Laurentiis this time?  I'll try to post my cooking endeavors on here every week (with pictures hopefully.)  This should be fun!