Winter Yum!

I woke up this morning to the sound of wind and rain and thought - Chicken Soup!!! I am so glad that I saved the chicken carcass from last week's dinner. I will get some sort of delicious bread to go with it and I have an easy Sunday dinner (the recipe is in a former blog). As I was looking at the Raleys ad, they have 2 kinds of roast beef on sale. I will make one this week and serve it with mashed potatoes and gravy and a vegetable. To make the roast beef I heavily salt and pepper it, then put some rosemary sprigs on top. You will need a meat thermometer and plan for about 20 minutes a pound in a 350 degree oven. I have a great roasting pan with a rack, but if you dont, you can just put it in any baking pan. I usually pull it out of the oven about 140 degrees and let it sit a few minutes. The temperature will rise as it sits there. This is for a medium cooked roast.
After the roast beef dinner, you can make french dip sandwiches with the leftovers, or package and freeze the leftover meat for lunch meat.
This week I will also marinate some pork loin chops in italian dressing for 30 minutes and grill them on the bbq. I'll serve that with some wild rice and carrots.
On the quick cooking night, I will make Sweedish Meatballs. I just cheat and buy the packaged mix and serve it over rice with a veggie and call it good! Maybe I'll make some pop and fresh busciuts with it if there is time. You can cook the meatballs the night before and just make the sauce that night if you are really pressed for time. A meatball hint: I use a cookie dough scoop to get my meatballs all about the same size. This makes it easier to cook them!

Now about our winter garden.............................................we planted it yesterday and I can't wait to eat the goods! We planted onions, LOTS of broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, red cabbage, lettuce, and swiss chard. We also have artichokes and asparagus that stay all year, but thrive in the cooler months. The funny thing yesterday was that only in California would we be putting in our winter garden and picking ripe tomatoes on the same day! I'll keep you posted on the success of the crops:)