Weekend Chef

I spent over an hour in Meijer this afternoon looking over all of the vegetable choices. As I stood in the produce department I was able to look with new eyes, the eyes of a cook. I spent 4 more hours today in my cooking class learning the basics of preparing a variety of veggies. And a couple pieces of fruit. I could not believe all that we learned in such a short amount of time.  We used fennel, parsnips, bok choy, swiss chard, brussel sprouts, spinach, jalepenos, yukon gold potatoes, all colors of peppers, red onions, radishes, cucumbers, mushrooms, carrots, rappini, and blood oranges.There was probably more but that I am just not remembering. I cannot wait to make some of these same dishes at home this week. I learned to cut and cook a variety ways. My favorite was roasting veggies. In the photo is baby bok choy that I was getting ready for a Japanese Noodle Stir Fry. 

 My mind is spinning with some new ideas. I think I might start a new tradition and make Sunday dinner. This way I have a chance to practice my skills while at the same time not feel pressured during the week to prepare anything beyond the basics. So, frozen pizza would still be ok.

I can't wait to start thinking about Sunday's dinner. Until then I have some work to do today. I have three chickens to cut apart. I need to make some chicken stock for the week. I figured that if I was going to do all that work for stock I would make two pots and freeze half. It is a lot of work and time to cook the stock. I chopped an awful lot of onions, carrots, and celery. I also ended up with 3 meals of chicken pieces. I am thinking about something with the dark meat for tomorrow.