Faithful Reader, do you recall that, for almost three years now, our family has been dining each night according to a particular theme? Bless Susan for her willingness to play along; each week she plans meals to suit these nightly themes (with the occasional exception, such as dining out for a birthday, or needing to eat up some leftovers from the previous night, etc.). (And I'm in charge of the weekly Scandinavian Saturday supper, of course.) We have tried a lot of new and fantastic food these past several years as Susan has experimented with new dishes to fit those themes . . . and we rarely repeat a recipe, either--there are just too many out there that we don't want to miss out on!
Well, we also have some favorite cooking shows that we like to watch each week (because Food Network is a family-friendly choice when trying to find something to watch with the kids), and I recently suggested altering our nightly themes somewhat to allow for regular trials of the recipes that we see on our favorite shows. Here's are the changes:
Tuesday used to be Take-Out Tuesday, allowing us either to eat take-out food from a restaurant (we typically have very busy Tuesday nights) or else food that one might find at a take-out restaurant (e.g., burgers, tacos, etc.). The new theme: 'Tessa Tuesday, allowing us to eat recipes featured on The Barefoot Contessa, a cooking show hosted by Ina Garten.
Thursday used to be Thirsty Thursday, a night for us to have a favorite beverage (e.g., malted milkshakes) or try some new concoction. The new theme: Thrifty Thursday, allowing us to eat recipes featured on Ten-Dollar Dinners, a show hosted by Melissa D'Arabian.
Sunday used to be Ice Cream Sunday (a play on "ice cream sundae," of course), whose only requirement was that dessert involve ice cream (not a problem in our household, with our freezer always stocked with premium ice cream from Schwan's). The new theme: Subcontinental Sunday (as in the subcontinent of India), allowing us to eat recipes featured on Aarti Party, a show hosted by Aarti Sequeira.
Preliminary results from the new nightly lineup: DELICIOUS! We watch the cooking show host make the food; our mouths water; and a few nights later, we get to experience the wonderfulness of tasting the dishes because Susan has made them for supper. Anybody want to swing by and join us some night?
We'll see how well all of the Food Network chefs' recipes hold up to adjustment for being more "heart healthy." Some of them just won't be the same...
ReplyDeleteLovely choices. I also watch Ina Garten. And of course, Giada. Love those two. But I've never seen the other ones. Not sure why...just haven't. I would still find an excuse, however, for ice cream. No problem with that here!
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