Sunday evening

My week goes a little bit smoother if I can get a good chunk of cooking done before the workweek starts. And I do this at the same time every week - Sunday at 7pm, when "The Big Broadcast" comes on. This is a radio show playing classics from Way Back When, like Gunsmoke and Dragnet. The old shows entertain me while I work, even though I am a little saddened by how many characters die on Gunsmoke every week.

Last night decided to document all that I was doing, so that those of you who don't cook that much can see what preparation cooking can offer you.

The first thing I started was a pot of lentils, which eventually turned into lentil soup, pictured on the right. I try to make at least a gallon of bean soup at a time, because Andrew eats it every day for lunch, and it freezes pretty well.

("There's just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with a U.S. Marshall and the smell of... Gunsmoke.")


Next I prepped vegetables. I had bought corn and green beans at the market, so I blanched them for use later this week. Here's a picture of everything resting in the cold water bath. We might eat the veggies cold, on a salad, or I might throw the beans in a stir fry and make the corn into soup. But this way the corn won't have gone bad waiting in the fridge, and the next cooking will go quickly. (Plus, I've noticed that having pre-cooked veggies like this means we eat more of them.)

For dinner we had Vietnamese spring rolls, filled with tofu and red pepper, served with peanut sauce. I love these but I don't get to eat them often; all the ingredients come from the Asian supermarket, which is a long drive from our house. Yesterday I finally figured out the secret words to convince Andrew to go there for me: "Why don't you take the motorcycle?"



Lastly, I made a dessert which we can enjoy all week. Excuse the terrible picture, but trust me that it tastes great. It's a cherry cake, made from this recipe.

("The fabulous freelance insurance investigator with the action-packed expense account.... Yours truly, Johnny Dollar.")