Project: Let's Eat Dinner Together

Preston and I have been living together for just over one year [unless, by some chance, my Very Conservative Southern Grandmother ever happens upon this blog, in which case that is a LIE and we have been living together ONLY since we got married. Before that we had always lived separately and only ever held hands. In the dark.]. And up until August, I could count on one hand (maybe two) the times during that year that Preston and I had sat down to eat the same thing at the same time TOGETHER.

Seriously. It's actually incredibly embarrassing. On a typical night last year, I would heat up a pot of frozen broccoli, overcook it, douse it in tomato sauce and parmesan cheese, and call it dinner. And then an hour and a half later when I realized that a dinner of broccoli is surprisingly non-filling for someone who no longer has an eating disorder, I would wander back into the kitchen and grab, most likely, either a) pretzels and a vat of hummus, b) a bag of 100 calorie popcorn, c) yogurt with Bran cereal, d) canned green beans, e) ice cream, or f) all of the above. On the other end of the spectrum, Preston would either cook a) hot dogs, b) frozen pizza, c) frozen fish filets, d) frozen chicken nuggets, or e) frozen buffalo chicken wings. And if he was feeling guilty, he would add some frozen peas to his menu. And if we were both feeling guilty, we would cook spaghetti.

I know. I know. I'm embarrassed for us. HOWEVER, while we were on our honeymoon, we decided that one of our goals as a real, live, sophisticated (ha!) married couple was going to be to cook and eat dinner together more often. This goal met with moderate success over the summer, but lately, we've done much better (as I mentioned earlier, I was inspired by Jamie's post here). I've been taking pictures of everything we've cooked and have decided to post them all here to make myself more responsible. Because if I know I'm accountable to the internet, well then. I guess we HAVE to eat well. Here are a few of our latest attempts.

As usual, I got this recipe for Spaghetti and Turkey Meatballs from my favorite Ellie Krieger cookbook. We made these on Sunday night, and maybe it's just because we're kitchen novices, but I am GLAD we weren't making them on a weekday night. I hadn't prepped anything beforehand, but I'd estimate that the sauce and the meatballs took us about two hours, from start to finish. However, it was worth it. The meatballs were juicy, and crunchy, thanks to the grated carrot, and the sauce was delicious (though, not at all spicy, as the recipe claimed it would be)--the fresh rosemary adds a ton of flavor. But I love rosemary, and would probably have rosemary's baby (except that I really would not have Rosemary's Baby), so maybe that's just me. We made the whole recipe and apparently made massive meatballs, because we only had ten; however, we did have three left over, that are now sitting in the freezer to be defrosted in order to comfort me after I've had a bad day.

The next dish we tried, another Ellie Krieger meal, Aromatic Noodles with Lime Peanut Sauce, was probably my favorite that we made this week. Probably because anything made with peanut butter = automatically awesome. As a whole, however, this meal was quite tasty, even for someone who doesn't really like peanut butter (See: Preston). Honestly, even though he's not a peanut butter guy (I KNOW, RIGHT?? He's crazy, obviously) , Preston loved the sauce, and I ate it on leftover veggies the next day for lunch. The red pepper flakes and the ginger in the sauce give the dish a nice kick, the spinach linguine (mine was technically Trader Joe's spinach linguine with chives) is delicious, and who doesn't love snow peas, sugar snap peas, and broccoli? Delicious and easy = my new go-to meal.

Our last meal for this week was Salmon Cakes. I was really looking forward to these, because I love love love salmon, even if it's from a can (as this recipe calls for). However, I have to say, these weren't that great. I misread the recipe and actually added olive oil to the cakes themselves (the oil was just supposed to be used to grease the skillet), but I'm glad I did. Otherwise, I would have had my doubts about the cakes staying together while being fried. I halved the recipe, which yielded seven cakes. The water chestnuts add a nice crunch, and the cilantro adds a nice twist (if you like cilantro). I don't know that I'll make the salmon cakes again, but I'll definitely make the accompanying ginger-sesame sauce, which is a great dip for vegetables...especially leftover raw broccoli and snow peas from a few nights before.

Overall, although it takes forethought, planning, and living with a very crowded refrigerator for the majority of the week, I think that Project: Let's Eat Dinner Together could be kind of fantastic. I've found that it's fun to get creative in the kitchen, therapeutic after sitting at a desk all day, and both delicious and rewarding when we get to eat it! Plus, if I cook, it means that Preston has to do the dishes, which is basically awesome. And, finally, you know, it's fun to eat dinner together and see each other and be a real live married couple...and all that. So here's to Project: Let's Eat Dinner Together. Let's hope it has some staying power. I'll let you know tomorrow what next week's meals are!