What I cooked this week, Episode 5

This was the first week since I committed to this cooking schedule that I didn't make dinner on two week nights. I blame the fact that we got into town late and exhausted on Monday night after driving back from Lake Tahoe. Anyway, I made up for it by cooking dinner both Saturday and Sunday.

Episode 5, July 5-July 11

Spinach-ricotta ravioli with meat sauce

I'd made fresh pasta twice before (ravioli and noodles), and I really wanted to try ravioli again. The trouble is, I don't have a pasta press, which means I have to roll out the dough by hand, which is a lot of work. I'm glad I tried it again, and the results were pretty tasty (even if I overcooked the ravioli just a bit), but I am not sure it's entirely worth the effort. Who wants to buy me a pasta press for my birthday? Side note: I tried to make Andrew's famous meat sauce for the topping, but it didn't turn out quite right, leading me to conclude that I should leave the meat sauce making to him.

Rosemary-garlic roast pork with stewed cherries

I had a bag of cherries that had been sitting in my fridge for long enough to get mushy, but not so long to as to have gotten moldy. Not wanting them to go to waste, I asked my friend Jeters what do with them, and she suggested making a sauce for pork or duck. Done! I had never made a pork roast before, and this recipe from How to Cook Everything turned out superbly, moist and flavorful. After pitting a pound of cherries using a knife and my fingernails (no fancy cherry pitter here!), I cooked them with red wine, a little thyme, lemon, and salt. Delish.

Scrambled eggs with fresh herbs

After last weekend's scrambled eggs success, I knew I had to have a repeat performance. Instead of scrambling them with cooked onions, this time I added a mix of fresh herbs (thyme, basil, and marjoram). Again, light and fluffy and not overcooked! I ate mine on toast with a side of avocado.

Chickpea tagine

Another Mark Bittman recipe, this was a great one-pot dinner, giving me yet another way to use the hens I buy at the farmers' market. I brought an unopened package of chickpeas with me from Houston when we moved, and decided to start using them up. Plus tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, dates, and bulgar--yum.

And I cooked twice as many chickpeas as I need so that I can make hummus later this week!

Also pleasing: both the pork roast and the tagine allowed me to use the chicken stock I made a couple weeks ago.