It would happen every single weekend. I’d sit down to sketch out our family’s meals for the week…and drive myself crazy deciding what to make. Didn’t we just have that last week? What’s something good I can make in the slow cooker since I’m out all day Monday? That’s too many chicken dishes in a row, what’s good that’s vegetarian? It was taking almost as long to come up with the menu as it did to shop for the groceries.

I realized that my brain was overloaded with too many options. I was trying to choose from a field of all possible meal ideas in the world for what to make for dinner and was quickly getting overwhelmed. That’s when I realized I needed a shortlist of maybe just 20 or 30 go-to dishes, the ones our family has enjoyed the most. I took ten minutes one morning and brainstormed ideas in categories such as “Poultry”, “Pasta”, “Seafood” and “Slow Cooker”. Oh yes, this was an Excel exercise for sure (remember, I’m Type A). Now I just choose from the list…problem solved.

Of course, I still try out new recipes too. This Japanese Pork Cutlets recipe from the side of a bottle of tonkatsu sauce went straight onto the shortlist under “Pork” once we tried it this week. Anything with a crisp, golden panko crust usually gets my vote. The sweet and tangy katsu sauce is terrific with the savory pork. All I needed were some steamed rice and vegetables to get this new go-to meal on the table in less than 30 minutes.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2011. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/japanese-pork-cutlets-tonkatsu/

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It was about time we switched things up at lunch. On most days, my kids get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a quesadilla for lunch. They like it and I can pull it together and get it onto their Dora the Explorer sectioned plates before a meltdown erupts (that’s mainly my 20-month-old little guy – he doesn’t like to wait).

This Chicken Curry recipe, from a can of coconut milk, has been staring at me from the recipe clipboard I recently installed inside my pantry door. In particular, I was drawn to the words “30 minutes total time” at the top. It was going to be dinner one night this week but then I had a light bulb moment: why not make it for lunch instead? Chicken, vegetables and rice in a flavorful broth…that’s something my kids will definitely eat.

This turned out to be an excellent excuse to break from our PB&J and quesadilla lunch rut. It’s a mild-flavored curry, with gentle warmth but not overwhelming heat (of course, you have control over the spice level). Not only did I actually manage to prepare it in about thirty minutes, but I also was able to photograph it within a timeframe acceptable to him-of-little-patience.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2011. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/chicken-curry/

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We walked into the restaurant for a good friend’s birthday dinner a few years back and right away we noticed there was something odd about this steakhouse. Smoke rising from steaks searing on an open grill was, of course, expected. But as we moved further into the dining room the smell of those steaks actually seemed to be emanating from rather close by…like they were being grilled right there in the dining room. Oh my goodness, by the restaurant patrons themselves!

If you haven’t been to one of those do-it-yourself grill places (there are a few here in San Diego), it can be a fun social experience with a group. Especially with a group of inexperienced grillers. At the time of this party, my husband and I were abysmally bad at grilling. I don’t think we even owned a barbecue at that point. We could execute a decent burger… beyond that was uncharted territory. Suffice it to say, we enjoyed a lot of side dishes at that party!

These days I’m proud to say I’m a confident griller. I fire up the barbecue nearly every weekend in the summer and lately I’ve been able to manage one weeknight grilled meal as well. Today’s Balsamic Marinated Lamb Chops are perfect for a weeknight. It takes just minutes to assemble the marinade, which is a fabulous combination of savory and tangy flavors. Let the lamb bathe in those flavors overnight, then just grill them off in under 15 minutes for dinner. Toss some asparagus in olive oil, salt and lemon pepper and roll them on the grates for a few minutes while the meat is resting and you’ve got a meal!

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© Cooking On the Side, 2011. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/balsamic-marinated-lamb-chops/

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I got to be “that house” last weekend. The one in the neighborhood whose backyard grill is billowing out aromas that make you stop what you’re doing and say aloud, “OMG, what are they making over there and can we have some?”

In my case it was the woody scents of the maple grilling plank and fresh rosemary sprigs under my Rosemary and Lemon Pork Chops that caused a fragrant scene. Ever since the Cedar Planked Salmon with Brown Sugar I’ve been pretty hooked on plank grilling. I just love that smoky flavor the planks impart to whatever you’re grilling and the meat seem to come out so moist throughout. When I was at Williams-Sonoma the other day I picked up another cedar plank for more salmon soon and a maple plank, which came with the recipe I’m sharing today. They also sell an alder plank, which I’ll have to try next.

I was so pleased with how these pork chops came out. Pork chops are kind of my cooking nemesis – I have a tendency to overcook them, especially boneless ones like this recipe called for. I’ll credit the planks and my trusty meat thermometer for ushering me toward the juiciest, most flavorful chops I’ve made in a while!

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© Cooking On the Side, 2011. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/maple-planked-rosemary-lemon-pork-chops/

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The panicked look on my face probably startled my husband into thinking something dire had taken place.

“Where’s the ricotta???”

Truthfully, for the first few seconds after I realized the stuffed shells recipe I was following seemed to have omitted the ricotta…well, I did have a minor momentary freakout. It shouldn’t have been a real showstopper, but when I’m racing against the sun to prepare and photograph a meal before putting it on the dinner table, the last thing I want to find out is that the recipe I’m following has flaws. Sometimes when you find one error in a recipe, others aren’t far behind.

I scanned over the recipe again and again, but there was no mention of ricotta cheese at all. Impossible! Stuffed shells are made with ricotta, or at least the kind I like to eat do. I wondered if I had mistakenly chosen a sausage-and-spinach-only version, but the photo on the side of the box where I found the recipe depicted shells just brimming with spinach-flecked ricotta. It was definitely supposed to be in there.

Fortunately, this recipe error seemed to be an isolated incident. Hoping I wouldn’t wind up with way too much filling I went ahead and added in a pound of ricotta anyway. I just couldn’t bear to make stuffed shells without it. They turned out just right – that classic, homey comfort dish I’ve known and loved for years, made a little healthier with a bag of baby spinach mixed in. And ricotta. Problem averted.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2011. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/sausage-spinach-stuffed-shells/

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How many times have you come across a recipe like the one below for Penne with Artichokes on a food label? A tiny 3″ square with no photo or headnotes, significantly truncated to fit on the box?

Recipes like this are kind of mysterious. You have no idea of what the dish looks like or how it tastes and it can be a challenge to decipher the oh-so-brief directions. It was mysterious little on-the-package recipes like these which sparked my interest in starting this blog two years ago. There were so many of them popping up on labels in my pantry, I became very curious to see how they actually came out and hoped to find some hidden gems along the way (which I have).

You guys know that when I say food packages I don’t mean “packaged food”, as in mixes and prepared or processed foods, right? Every once in a while someone will indicate to me that they think Cooking On the Side is about cooking with processed foods and I cringe. Yikes, it’s just the opposite!

Wherever possible, I like to cook from scratch. For this blog, I look for the recipes that appear on basic ingredients – flour, butter, fresh meats and vegetables, pasta, chocolate and so on. I have found a number of fabulous new recipes in the course of this little endeavor – and today’s easy, flavorful tomato and artichoke pasta dish is one of them.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2011. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/penne-with-artichokes-and-how-i-started-this-blog/

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