President's Day Weekend - Dinner by Dinner

My apologies for the very late post, but I’ve had several requests for the meals I mentioned President’s Day weekend, so here is a quick tour of our 3-day weekend, meal by meal.

Saturday Dinner – breakfast and lunch were boring, sorry. But for dinner, I went WAY outside my comfort zone and I cooked Chicken Khao Soi. It’s a northern Thai curry dish and it was AMAZING. I mean incredible. As in, there aren’t enough capital letters and exclamation points. Now, if you don’t like curry, then skip this. But if you do – make this NOW. It was easy and yummy and delicious. I made some crispy fried shallots to serve on top, along with sliced red onion, lime wedges, and the cilantro leaves that I had set aside when pruning the stems (an ingredient in the paste used). And of course Chinese egg noodles were not to be found in Pomona, so I just used spaghetti, but it worked.

Sunday Dinner – Mr. Acorns was in charge on Sunday, and he knocked it out of the damn park. Leg of lamb stuffed with swiss chard and feta cheese, served with a delectable au jous. We just served it with a Trader Joe’s frozen quinoa/vegetable medley as a side because it was simple and nutritious. The lamb was incredible. Mr. Acorns had never had a leg of lamb, and I don’t think he was disappointed in his first go around.

Monday Dinner – I had to work Monday but once I wrapped up the first version of a brief, I set about making my first ever Indian food for dinner. I made saag paneer – complete with making my own paneer! It was very, very yummy. Not quite as creamy as I would have liked, but I can tweak it a bit next time. I would definitely just use frozen chopped spinach next time too – no need to do the extra work really. And probably double the yogurt/sauce ingredients. But it was VERY tasty. As was the lemon-cumin rice I made with it. a very tasty meal indeed.

Bonus – on Monday, Mr. Acorns made his own ricotta cheese. And it was GOOD! So for a treat, for lunch, he whipped up some crepes and we filled them with plain homemade ricotta, then mixed it up a bit and made a few with ricotta and kim chi (that’s his speed, not mine), and ricotta and a tangerine chutney we had leftover in the fridge. That one was delicious. The ricotta was perfect — flavorful, creamy, fresh. Just amazing. I will never buy ricotta again! I told him in a few weeks he’ll have to make more so I can make stuffed shells with homemade ricotta and homemade gravy. Now that will be heavenly!!!!