Let's Meal Plan Together for 10/26/09

Vegetable soup au pistou.  Last night's dinner. 

I'm back in the swing of cooking after about a week off of eating dinners out to celebrate my 40th.  Last night I was craving simplicity and made a delicious vegetable soup using marrow-rich beef shank bones as the base for the broth which I cooked in the oven for about 5 hours (look how clear the broth is--that's the beauty of the oven method.)  I added in loads of green veggies from the farmer's market: kale, cabbage, celery, zucchini, green beans, as well as garlic,  carrots and waxy potatoes.  I cooked some pasta separately and added those to the soup just before serving and it was topped with a zingy basil-garlic-pecorino Romano "pistou."  And it was yum.

Since I made about a gallon of soup, it will be repurposed tonight. I'm going to add some tomatoes and some sausage, some beans and some small pasta, and it will be minestrone.  What are you making this week?  Please let me know in the comments!

• Monday--Minestrone and salad
• Tuesday--Chicken and merguez sausage tagine with dried apricots, prunes and thyme, cous cous
• Wednesday--Omelettes and tomato- and garlic-rubbed toasted baguette (breakfast for dinner)
• Thursday--Saucisse de Toulouse with white beans, salad
• Friday--Dinner out, I think
• Saturday (Halloween)--Bunny has requested pumpkin soup and so my little Cleopatra shall have it
• Sunday--The month-long (or at least until Thanksgiving) "mostly vegan" challenge begins.  Maybe grilled portabello burgers...going to spend the week poring over my vegan cookbooks, of which I have surprisingly many.

Sunday also begins my most favorite time of the year--the holidays. I spend the entire month of November thinking about, mulling over, and eventually planning a special Thanksgiving meal. Even if we spend it away from home, I always cook a Thanksgiving dinner at some point over the weekend anyway.  I just have to do it because in the end, we like our own turkey, gravy, stuffing, and mashed potatoes best, don't we?  Are you thinking about Thanksgiving, too?  If you are, I won't think you are weird. Kindred spirit, here.