Meal Plan Monday Post - July

In my last post in July (before the blog went black for a few months; oops, my apologies) I promised that I'd still check in with meal plans. Well that didn't happen but because I'm super organized I can fill you in with the meal plan ... or some of it anyway. I would say I'm only slightly organized. Certainly not super! If we were vacationing or plans came up I didn't always update my menu. I'll catch the blog up regardless. Today I'm sharing the rest of July! Next week will be August and then September.

Short PSA - Since these are from July they won't get blogged otherwise we'd have summer posts in the middle of winter. And at some point the goal is to be somewhat current on the blog. For that reason I will add the pictures I took of the meals to the meal plan post. I usually save the pictures for the featured blog post instead of the meal plan post. If it was a new recipe then it should also be hyperlinked.

Meal Plan for the rest of July

   Monday 7/7 - Stir Fry
   Tuesday 7/8 - Corn cakes with avocado and goat cheese

   Wednesday 7/9 - Fish with squash

   Thursday 7/10 - Spaghetti and muscles with tomatoes and basil, blueberry crumb cake
      11th Month Anniversary Dinner Celebration
   Friday 7/11 - Mexican night: Carnitas with salsa verde
   Saturday 7/12 & Sunday 7/13- Weekend at the Lake; bring zucchini bread and vanilla ice cream

   Monday 7/14 - Asian night: Wontons and green beans, rice
   Tuesday 7/15 - Corn risotto and scallops
   Wednesday 7/16 - Homemade pasta
   Thursday 7/17 - Fish with squash, roma beans
   Friday 7/18 - Pasta with roasted garlic and eggplant (sub with quinoa)

   Saturday 7/9 - Chinese chicken salad
   Sunday 7/20 - Date night for sushi

   Monday 7/21 - Margherita pizza
   Thursday 7/24 - Summer pasta puttanesca
   Friday 7/25 - Salmon with pesto, squash casserole, wax beans

   Saturday 7/26 - Breakfast quiche
      Dinner Steak, green beans, roasted potatoes, yellow romas and mozzarella
   Sunday 7/27- Pork tenderloin, fried okra, corn

   Monday 7/28 - Roasted sweet potatoes, black beans, fried egg, corn tortilla chips, tomatillo salsa
   Tues 7/29 - Turkey burgers and zucchini fries
   Wed 7/30 - Pasta with creamy red pepper sauce and sweet Italian sausage

And a favorite summer snack ...

After typing this it's making me crave all that yummy summer produce! So much of it was from our CSA!

Ready for Fall

We are ready for fall at the Eibl household!

You are greeted at the front door with mums and [added since taking the picture] pumpkins!

Right inside the front door is a "Welcome Friends" sign... friends should take that literally!

Coffee table

Mantle

Dining table

My fall decorating mantra is usually strictly pumpkins, colored leaves, and fall only things so that I can leave the decor up through Thanksgiving. I make one small exception (err... three) and that would be the candy bowl and two Halloween figurine candles!

Blogging is back!

It's time to get back to blogging! We've said that before...

Last year we took a break to get married; this time we've taken a break to settle into our new home. Even though we moved in the middle of June and blogged a bit through that, we really spent the end of July and August unpacking boxes. Here's the post where we announced we had closed on the house!

I'm happy to report that I've got drafts set up for a few weeks and a promise from Patrick that he misses the blog and will edit posts whenever I ask. It'll be catch up during this time with some summer recipes so hopefully you'll come back and keep reading. We certainly didn't slow down in the kitchen and have lots to share however! And speaking of kitchen - we love our new kitchen. It's so spacious; we can both fit in it comfortably and cook together.

We'll try to post some about the house and a few things we've done. No worries about this turning into a DIY home blog though. We're horrible at taking "before" pictures. We are enjoying making the house ours and want to share some of that.

Some other fun news - we have two permanent house guests! We added Nacho Cheese & Dupree to our family at the beginning of September. They are two adopted kittens from the Durham Animal Protection Shelter. They are the cutest things and we couldn't be more pleased with our decision to become cat parents.

So - with all that - come back tomorrow because blogging is back!

No promises on keeping cat pictures to a minimum!



Meal Plan Monday Post

June came and went at the beginning of last week and it seems like July will be over before it feels like it got started! We were busy last week -- still unpacking, celebrating July 4th, and painting some new furniture. On Monday a local furniture consignment store was hosting a special event and we purchased a China cabinet with hutch for the kitchen. It was delivered on Saturday and we worked through the weekend to repaint it. Will have more details on the blog soon. Because of the furniture repainting the kitchen was chaos and we had two of our freezer meals!

Meal Plan for Monday June 30 - Sunday July 6

   Monday - Impromptu furniture shopping
      Eggplant parmesan with spaghetti
   Tuesday - Pork chops with roasted green beans, honey sauteed carrots
   Wednesday - Nacho night
   Thursday - Rosemont winery concert and dinner

   Friday - At the lake for the holiday; I was in charge of lunch and planned:
      Grilled cheeseburgers with avocado and bacon
      Served with fresh watermelon, chips, and cucumber-tomato salad.
      Then I made a peach cobbler for dinner dessert.

   Saturday - Dinner Baked Chicken Cheesy Penne (freezer meal)
   Sunday - Breakfast Guglhupf
      Lunch Pimento cheese sandwich and chips | Dinner Spaghetti & Meatballs (freezer meal)

Hope you had a nice holiday!

Happy July 4th!

Hello all!

Just a quick "Happy July 4th" post and some housekeeping notes - or "blogkeeping" if you will!

Hope everyone has a fun, safe weekend wherever you may be. We are looking forward to the holiday weekend and keeping it low key with family.

As you've seen we have been a bit busier the past few weeks with moving into our new house. It's been a little harder keeping posts drafted and set to publish on the blog. Our apologies as things slow down on the blog over the new few weeks. The posts will be a bit more intermittent. Meal Plan Monday Posts will still be happening and hopefully a few more posts throughout the week will make it up too!

Crepes with fresh strawberries

Our last crepe post was back in March and talked about our first attempt at them, where we made a bananas foster recipe. Those were delicious, but they were a little time-intensive to prepare and very decadent. This time around we went much simpler and just decided to wrap up some fresh cut strawberries (my favorite) and top with a little whipped cream.

As far as the recipe goes, we used the same batter recipe as that last post, but we halved it and were sure to make it the night before which makes for extra smooth batter and consistent crepes. I think I made them two at a time this go around by using two pans, but each crepe uses so little batter that it still takes a while to make them all. To keep them hot and crisp in the mean time, I spread out the cooked crepes on a large cookie sheet and keep them in a 200 degree oven while I finish the rest of them. Once they're all done we spoon a little filling in each one and roll them up, and then plate them with some whipped cream and extra strawberries on top.

I'm a big fan of crepes so it's nice to have these in our rotation of good weekend homemade breakfasts!

Look at me, I've started eating bacon too!

Pork Chops with Sauteed Leeks and Apples

Before the summer produce started popping up on our CSA list we were taking advantage of more greens such as green garlic, spring onions, and leeks (we made this dish about two months ago). This particular recipe was made with leeks. It featured apples and pork -- two things which go together wonderfully! We served with a side of couscous and this made for a right tasty meal. The original recipe was paired with a pork tenderloin but we used pork chops instead.

Martha Stewart's Pork with Sauteed Apples and Leeks
Ingredients
2 pork tenderloins (1 1/2 to 2 pounds total), trimmed of excess fat and silver skin
   We subbed 4 bone-in pork chops
2 tablespoons olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 leeks, white and light-green parts only, halved lengthwise, and cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
3 Gala apples, cored and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices and halved crosswise
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar or red-wine vinegar

Directions 
   Heat broiler, with rack set 4 inches from heat. On a broilerproof rimmed baking sheet, rub pork with 1 tablespoon oil; generously season with salt and pepper. Broil, until pork registers 145 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a plate, cover loosely with aluminum foil, and let rest, 10 minutes (temperature will rise about 5 degrees as it sits).
   Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat remaining tablespoon oil over medium. Add leeks and fennel seeds; cook, stirring occaionally, until leeks are tender, about 6 minutes. Add apples, and cook, tossing, until just beginning to soften, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in honey and vinegar, and season with salt and pepper. Thinly slice pork, and serve with apples and leeks.

Do you have a favorite recipe for pork paired with apples??