Wednesday...

Yesterday was one of "those days." You know the type of day that starts the night before with a baby whose tummy is full of gas bubbles because I ate brussel sprouts for dinner. I woke up sleepy at 5:45 but was determined to meet my friend Cat for a run. We ran 4 chatty miles and when I got home everyone was ready to be awake. It was cloudy and rainy outside so I decided it was a great day to chill in yoga pants. Ben took two short naps and I didn't check much off of my list of things to do. Short naps and ornery dogs led to me feeling tired and I needed to get out of the house. Ben and I ran some errands in the afternoon to pick up some treats for the dogs and a few things from Wal-mart. Once we returned home it was time for me to start dinner and time for Chopper to take a solo tour of the neighborhood. Andrew got home a little late from work and he received the honor of feeding Ben peaches and pears for dinner while I got things going in the kitchen.

"Daddy lets me get food all over!"

Wednesday's dinner included the following main ingredients: carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, red peppers, purple peppers, dill, parsley, pork chops, onions, garlic and rosemary.

The bounty of summer

I used several resources for last night's dinner including The America's Test Kitchen cookbook for pork chops and peppers, 101cookbooks.com for vibrant tasty green beans (I substituted onions for leeks) and smittenkitchen.com for moroccan-ish carrots and sweet potatoes. I braised the pork chops in our dutch oven, sauteed red peppers in white wine, vinegar and some spices and finished it in the oven--it wasn't very time consuming although I did have to brine the pork chops first which made them tender. The green beans were delicious. I sometimes get stuck in a green beans with garlic rut and I loved the beans with fresh dill. I didn't realize until I started making them but the sweet potatoes and carrots recipe was actually a baby food recipe. They were very tasty and not only did I make enough for Andrew and I, but Ben will enjoy them for several dinners to come.

Dinner was a success and through it I found three new recipes that I will make again!