Anatomy of a Monday Night Dinner

We begin in the morning…

6:45 Phoebe’s alarm goes off
6:46 Abby’s alarm goes off
7:00 Mom showers, Dad gets breakfast (pomegranate seeds and cereal) for girls
7:15 Get-Your-Shoes-On Battle begins
7:22 Shoes finally secure, Mom starts freaking out about missing bus. Dad and Girls laugh at her. “Mom have we ever missed the bus?”
7:30 Bus Arrives. (No kisses, but…yes! I think that was a wave from the window!)
7:35 Mom removes drumsticks from fridge, lays them down on cookie sheet, brushes with Dijon mustard. Mixes bowl of breadcrumbs with Parmesan, salt, and pepper. Searches for leftover herbs, finds only sage, which she chops up and adds to breadcrumbs. Finds leftover brussels from Thanksgiving. Places everything together in fridge.
8:07 Mom and Dad catch train to NYC.

What Mom projects will happen…

3:30 Girls will get off bus with sitter, will check in with Mom or Dad when they walk in door; Mom will get school download then give 9-year-old orders to preheat oven to 425° at 6:00.
5:40 Mom will board train home.
6:25 Mom will walk in door, remove chicken from fridge, press breadcrumbs into mustarded drumsticks and shove in preheated oven.
6:30 Mom will pour glass of Pinot Noir. Will now start to pay attention to her children, maybe even remember to check notices in backpacks.
6:45 Mom will decide which brussels to make: These or These. Probably the first, the ones with bacon, since there is a good hunk leftover from Thanksgiving…somewhere. Where is that bacon?
7:00 Dad will walk in: Jake.
7:05 Chicken removed from oven.
7:15 Dinner.

PS: This morning, my cow0rker, who lives and dies by her Slow Cooker during the week, did this: She took one frozen pork tenderloin, an ummeasured bag of lentils (about a cup and a half as she sees it), 1 onion (chopped), 2 cloves garlic (whole, smashed), about 4 sprigs of thyme, 5-10 peppercorns, 1/2 cube of beef bouillon, 2 strips of bacon into her slow cooker. She added water about halfway up the pork and set on the 10-hour setting. We’ll let you know how both dinners turn out tomorrow via twitter.

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12 Comments

Sara

I love my crock pot! Yesterday, I made the absolute easiest pulled pork recipe ever that I got from a friend, and then, of course, altered a smidge.

I took 2 pork tenderloins, and one can of rootbeer and put placed them in my crock pot on low for 6 hours and 15 minutes. I removed the tenderloins and drained the remaining liquid from the crock pot. Then I shredded the tenderloins. After shredding, I placed the shredded pork back into the crock pot with the contents of a large bottle of BBQ sauce and I let it sit on low for 30 more minutes.

Super easy pulled pork! And it was delicious! I will be posting pictures on my blog tomorrow – feel free to come by and check it out! 🙂

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jen

Loved this post- finding it funny because I did boneless thighs, and the rest of the honey mustard dressing in the fridge with the breadcrumbs and fresh parsley with parmesean cheese. Going to have the leftover brussel sprouts and stuffing with them!! I enjoy your blog immensely!

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Rebecca

I love how everyone has a unique routine… and yet we all do almost the same things everyday, just slightly differently. I do enjoy reading your blog. 🙂

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Annie

I love love love this post. I can’t wait to see how it turns out! It would be fantastic if this could be a regular feature on the site. The timing especially is a godsend.

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Amanda

I can’t wait to hear how the Crock Pot recipe comes out. In particular because I just wrote about how those 8+ hours don’t seem to work well for me since I am away from the house for up to 10 hours a day (darned commute!). I often end up with something resembling pork jelly, not pork verde. Looking forward to hearing about the results!!

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Micaela @MindfulMomma

I’m so impressed that you start dinner in the morning! I get lazy because I work from home – but there’s no reason why I couldn’t get something going early! Thanks for the inspiration….and I’m curious to hear about that crock pot recipe. 🙂

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Jamie

Wait, what? You’re on Twitter? I tried to find you some time ago to tweet one of your 1000 favorite posts of mine… following you in a moment!

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Nuts about food

That sounds almost as/even more (I am not sure) stressful than our week day. What makes it more stressful is that we don’t have to commute as we both work in the city and don’t depend on train schedules (Italian train schedules!). What makes you evening less stressful is that your kids are older than ours and thus more independent…whatever! Sounds like a delicious dinner.

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Justine

I wonder if this recipe would work for some of those turkey drumsticks I just got from Whole Foods. Planning to make Jacques Pepin’s “dark turkey fricassee” from his new cookbook tonight. Maybe I’ll go back and get some more and make this too.
p.s. I have pinned so many of your posts to Pinterest that I’m considering giving you a separate board. Thanks! 🙂

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Ines

My slow cooker is responsible for so many of our family dinners. Alas, I am not good at adapting regular recipes as I am a clueless cook who needs literal instructions and there aren’t a ton of great recipes! How I would love for you to write about slow cooking….!

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Jen

Hi Jenny, will you please ask your co-worker how her pork turned out in the crock pot? I don’t have a dutch oven so I’d like to try the crock pot version of the co-worker recipe first. Also, did she put the pork in the slow cooker frozen? Thanks!

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