Craziness

Ugh, what a day. All I can say is that it’s going to take a period of adjustment to Jim’s new schedule. I am exhausted, and I was completely inefficient in the kitchen today. Of course, I think I bit off a little more than I could chew with the somewhat complicated recipes I selected.

We went to Walnut Creek so I could return some stuff to Nordstrom. I have to say, considering the short amount of time we had, we were incredibly efficient. We managed to go there, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Costco, and Harvest House (a health food store in Concord) and be back home by 4:20 after not leaving until about 1:45. I'd say that was more than good. At Whole Foods I stuck to the food needed for this week's meals: lamb chops, monterey jack cheese, queso fresco, blue corn tortillas, and tomatillos. I picked up organic flour tortillas from TJ's, and while I waited in the absurdley long line for gas, Jim ran in and bought milk from Costco. Harvest House was the last stop, and I got a couple of things for me and unsulphured dried apricots for my mom.

Back at the house, I went into full prep mode. The easy thing was making the glaze for the baa baas, which was simply salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, and honey. The mint pesto was mint (of course), parsley, garlic, salt, pepper, parmesan, EVOO, and pine nuts. I halved the recipe because I didn't buy enough chops, and Bobby's original called for 12 3 oz. chops. I bought 12 chops, but it ended up only being a little over a pound. I hadn't the slightest idea what a 3 ounce chop looked like, so I just 12.

I started in on the next recipe, which was a repeat of Tyler's chicken enchiladas. I roasted off the tomatillos, jalapenos, onion, and I remembered the garlic this time, too. While those roasted at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, I prepped the lamb itself by brushing salt, pepper, and EVOO on both sides. What I didn't realize was that the grill was out of commission thanks to an empty propane tank. So I grilled off the lamb in 2 batches on the indoor grill pan, which worked fine. The smell isn't what I care for, but between the open windows and vent fan, it was tolerable.

So for dinner, Jim had a couple of lamb chops, frozen peas (I mixed in butter and some mint), and bread from La Farine (which we picked up yesterday). That bread was so frickin' amazing. I swear there is nothing else like fresh bread.

The enchiladas actually went very quickly once I shredded up the rotisserie chicken purchased from Costco. The shredding itself was pretty gross, but I am actually becoming less squeamish about it now. Of course, the double layer of gloves definitely helps. I hope I didn't get too many bones in the two piles. Most of the chicken went to the enchiladas, but I reserved a cup and a half for chicken tacos.

With the enchilada sauce, all I did was throw the roasted veggies into the food processor (I did de-seed and de-rib the jalapenos first, though) and add cumin, salt, cilantro, and lime juice. I must admit, even I am impressed by this enchilada sauce (shameless self-promotion moment). It's super good, and even without the jalapeno seeds, it's got quite a kick to it.

For the chicken mixture, I sauteed onions and then added garlic and cumin, finally stirring in flour and chicken broth to make a veloute (one of the 5 mother sauces. I'm such a foodie! He he). I later on folded in the chicken and some of the enchilada sauce. I learned my lesson this time and only added a little sauce to the chicken mixture, not half like the recipe called for. While the onions were cooking, I shredded up the monterey jack cheese.

Then it was a simple assembly. It took way less time than my first attempt because the shredded cheese was in one bowl and I took out the 10 tortillas (out of the 12 pack) and put them on the counter. That way I didn't need clean hands at all and didn't have to keep putting on and taking off my gloves because of cross-contamination worries. It all got messy and mingled, but I used everything that was out there (unlike last time), so it was fine. I flash heated the tortillas over the gas stove, rubbed in some enchilada sauce, spooned on some chicken mixture, added some cheese, rolled it up, and placed it in the 8 x 8 baking dish. The recipe yielded 10 tortillas, 5 for each dish.

Although I had a ton of garbage, I actually kept more or less on top of it as I went along, so there wasn't too much cleanup to do at the end. I was pretty pleased.

Jim really liked the lamb. I tried to be pretty conscious about cooking them all the way through, since Jim said he liked it more medium. He said it was cooked well (as opposed to well doneness), so I was quite happy with that.

When I got back home, I still had to make dinner for myself. I ended up making a tofu dish created by Giada. When I saw this debut on Everyday Italian last week, I knew I had to try it, because, well, Italian tofu?? Never happen. Out of pure curiosity, I had to make it. Plus the recipe is ridiculously easy and quick, which was what I needed tonight.

I did my best to drain the tofu, weighting it down for several minutes. I made an Asiago pesto out of parsley, Asiago (of course), garlic, salt, pepper, walnuts, and grapeseed oil (as opposed to EVOO). The pesto was really, really tasty. I ended up adding a little more parsley because I hadn't measured the Asiago out, instead choosing to just throw a hunk into the food processor for convenience reasons. I think it was a little more than 1/2 a cup, because my first taste was awfully cheesy. So I added a little more parsley to tone it down a bit and it ended up being fine.

Then I grilled off the tofu on the George Foreman grill. The result was a crispy on the outside, delicate on the inside piece of tofu. I really liked the texture, and it was a very low-fat way of cooking the stuff. I did brush the tofu with just a bit of EVOO, but nothing compared to frying. I also added some salt and pepper, which was different for me, because I don't think I've ever eaten pepper with tofu. Not a bad combo by any means. Just different. I was shocked to see all of the water dripping out from the tofu onto the counter. When I do this again, I will definitely have to use the meat juice tray. Even with all of the blotting, tons of water still leaked out. I placed the grilled slices on more paper towels and they absorbed even MORE water!

The end result was different, but pretty good. You definitely had to have the exact amount of pesto on there. Too much and the tofu was completely masked. Too little, and it was bland city. But there were definitely bites that were quite yummy.