This Week’s Menu: Two at the Table Menu Week of April 26 2015

Last week marks what might be a first for Two at the Table: we made none of the dinners we had planned. Not a one. We’re not happy about this, but our schedules got a little crazy during the week and by the time we got home on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights, it was late enough, and we were tired enough, to justify ordering in. The Grilled Shrimp with Salad (our own creation), the Roasted Spring Vegetables and Greens with Goat Cheese Toasts, and the Roasted Chicken with Lemon Dill Yogurt Sauce (another of our own creations) with Martha Stewart’s Roasted Asparagus with Lemon and Dill will all have to wait for another day. (Sunday is going to be “another day” for the chicken and asparagus, as you’ll see below.) To be fair though, things were a bit our of our control Saturday night: we had made the pistachio rub only to discover that the lamb was past its prime (no pun intended). This did not stop us from enjoying the bottle of 2008 Coto De Imaz Rioja that Michael at Wines by the Flask suggested for us with dinner that we ordered in.

For this week’s menu, then, since our schedules have not gotten any easier, we decided to try to keep things simple during the weekdays, but to be a bit more adventurous during the weekend.

As mentioned above, on Sunday night, we’ll make a dish of our own invention, Roasted Chicken with Lemon Dill Yogurt Sauce and serve it with Martha Stewart’s Roasted Asparagus with Lemon and Dill. There’s something satisfying about a chicken dinner on Sunday night, so we’re going to stick with them as long as the weather is cool enough to keep the oven on for an hour or so.

With our schedules being what they are, and us preparing to leave for a vacation to Amsterdam next week, including scrambling to get all our planning and shopping done, we’re going to have to find dishes that require minimal prep time and either very little time to cook or enough time in the oven to free us up to do other things.

On Monday, we’ll use up the shrimp we bought last week and make something of our own creation – Sautéed Shrimp with Cherry Tomatoes and Basil over Cous Cous. It should be quick and simple, which is the theme for the week.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we’re going to make two sheet pan dinners suggested by The Kitchn. Tuesdays night’s dinner will be Lemon-Herb Fish Fillets on Crispy Potato Rafts. This dish features minimal prep – slicing potatoes, tossing them with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper – and about 45 minute of total cooking time, so we’ll be able to get other things done.

Wednesday night’s dinner, also from The Kitchn, will be even simpler: Broiled Steak with Asparagus and Feta Cream Sauce. For this dish, not only is the prep minimal, but everything cooks at once and very quickly. The recipe says to place the asparagus in a foil-lined sheet pan, lay a wire rack on top of the asparagus, place the steak on the rack, and put everything under the broiler for about 10 minutes. In the time the steak is cooking you can make the feta cream sauce.

We’ll order in Thursday night (just because we want to) and go out to dinner Friday night (because we really haven’t in a while), which brings us to Saturday night. We’ll be making Rachel Khoo’s Lemon Lavender Chicken, one of our favorite recipes from Rachel. The motivation here is that we’ve always made this dish with Herbs de Provence, which contains lavender, but Kim was able to find lavender recently and immediately thought of making this chicken again. We’ll make sure we have lots of crusty French bread on hand to sop up all the savory-sweet-lavendery juices that this dish makes.