a little that and a little of thistle.....

I made the decision, yes I made the unilateral executive decision, that we need to eat out of the freezer.  I have so much food in that freezer that it will probably make my head spin.  I see something in the grocery and that is what I want to make.  I have said this before never quite followed through, this time I am going downstairs to rearrange and take inventory.  I have no work tomorrow and no class, so I have everything prepared to do this tomorrow, I am going to keep a copy of the inventory list on the outside of the freezer, a copy on my phone, and on my ipad.  I think I will send a copy to Andrew so that he too is clear on what we have and that he can decide also our menu.

In keeping with our "eat out of freezer",  Andrew grilled these beauties....

These are Ribeye Steaks.  He rubbed them with Weber's Chicago Steak Rub, it was very, very mild.  I enjoyed it immensely.  We have a very dear friend that is a butcher, and she always makes sure that the money that we spend on meat is well spent.  She advises me on what I should and should not buy.  It is a terrific feeling knowing that someone is making sure that you well taken care of.  I appreciate this more than she could possibly know, sorry I digress.  While Andrew was making magic with the steak, I was killing the potatoes.....No really, I incinerated them, totally.  They were bad, so very, very bad.

Burnt beyond recognition......

 I did really a great job in nuking the peas and corn or is it corn and peas.  This is my favorite veggie combination.  I put a little butter and Hiwa Kai Black Lava Sea Salt on them.  Phew, they were all that.  So when we finally sat down to eat this is what we were met with..

Yup, absolute perfection...well there were 3 potato sticks that were edible.

Take a gander at these pics....

Thank you for making dinner for me....

I figure the things that I am going have to continue to purchase at the grocery is fresh veggies, fruit, bread, and dairy.  I am thinking that isn't too bad.  I have also been  thinking about starting a "Supper Club", I don't know the ins and outs of what I want to do, I want to make a menu for a work week, and stick to it, make a finite amount of food, for the amount of people I need to cook for and do just that.  It is so very hard for me to just cook for two.  I still end up making for 6, and I need to stop.  I never worried about how it would be just the two of us.  This is how it is now, us two.  That is it.

We had fresh macaroni in the fridge, along with baby artichokes, and broccoli rabe,  I trimmed, washed, and cut the broccoli rabe.  I put it in the salad spinner to dry, works great.  I then did the same to the baby artichokes except I put lemon in the water so they did not turn brown.

 

I steamed the baby artichokes in a little water, and plucked them out when they were almost tender.

I decased equal amounts of hot and sweet Italian sausage, put a little olive oil in a large pan, and cooked them a bit, added 3 chopped shallots, then 6 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper.  I cooked them till the shallots and garlic was almost tender (6-8 min) I added the artichokes, cooked all for 5-6 minutes, added the broccoli rabe. 

 
I set 8 quarts of water to boil, when it was boiling I salted the water generously, put the macaroni in, cooked for 5 minutes, fresh pasta cooks fast, I drained the pasta, keeping about 2 cups of water.  

I combined the pasta water and the artichoke water, added the pasta to the sausage, then added about 1.5 cups of water to the pan, and cooked all together for a minute or two, and....
added some grated cheese, crushed red pepper.....it was a feast.

I served it with crusty bread and the rest is history.....

Life is good, very, very good.....