Menu Monday! (on Sunday)

Another week at home - yay! Here is our menu for this week:

Sunday Night: Scallops Provencal with roasted parmesan asparagus and brown rice pilaf. The scallop recipe is another Ina Garten recipe from Barefoot in Paris. For the roasted asparagus, I just toss the asparagus with olive oil, salt, and pepper on a cookie sheet and roast at 425 for about 10-15 minutes. Then I add shredded parmesan at the end. I mix up the ingredients to my brown rice pilaf, sometimes I use shallots instead of onion, I might add garlic if I have it on hand, sometimes I omit the peas, or I might also substitute beef stock for chicken stock.

Monday Night: Linguine with Shrimp Scampi from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa at Home. I have had this recipe on my list of recipes to try, but then I saw it on Blue Eyed Bride and decided to make it this week. Ina Garten is one of my favorite sources for delicious recipes so I am sure this will be good.

Tuesday Night: Teriyaki pork tenderloin from Let's Dish. I go every few months or so and stock my freezer with Let's Dish meals to have on hand. This is one that I made this month.

Wednesday Night: Pork chops crusted with Italian panko breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. I mix together about 1/2 cup of panko and a few tablespoons of freshly shredded parmesan cheese. I dip the pork chops in egg (or egg white) and then coat it in the panko/parmesan. I saute these, but you can also bake them in the oven. We are having these with peas and portabellas tossed in butter and garlic. The panko breadcrumbs are really good! They taste like regular breadcrumbs but they are crispier.

Thursday Night: Beef kabobs with pineapple and mushrooms from Let's Dish.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Show us your life Friday...

Kelly's show us your life topic for Friday was right up my alley - china patterns! I love, love, love using my china. We use it quite often when we entertain and we also use it at home for special occasions. I love browsing the china department and seeing the new patterns. When I got married I was so excited to register for tableware. As usual, Thomas just went along with it and tried to muster up a little excitement! Ha ha!

The patterns below are the ones that we use day to day. I have several Southern Living at Home, Arthur Court, and sterling silver serving pieces that I use with all of my patterns. I like to mix and match the serving pieces from each pattern with my silver, pewter, and glass serving pieces. Now I just need a butler's pantry to store all this...

My favorite of all my china patterns is my Christmas china, Bernardaud Grenadiers. I love using it during Christmas. I love the whimsical and elegant design.




I recently bought another formal pattern - Kate Spade's Library Lane for Lenox. I love the navy and gold with the polka dot accent plate.


The formal pattern that we registered for at our wedding was Imperial Scroll by Vera Wang for Wedgwood.



Our everyday crystal is French Countryside by Mikasa. I love this pattern and it is very inexpensive. $10 per stem!

Our formal crystal pattern is Kelsey by Waterford. I want to start adding the champagne flutes to my collection.

Our everyday china is Traditions by Wedgwood. Our wedding guests were very generous, and we received tons of this. My favorite is the teapot, sugar, and creamer. These were given to me by dear friends and make me smile when I see them on my bar. I hesitated about registering for a white china pattern too, but I am so glad I did! I wanted something timeless that I would still enjoy using years later.

We also have a set of the Gallery Collection dinnerware from Southern Living at Home. I don't use this as our everyday set anymore, but I still use a ton of the serving pieces.

I have posted about my china love/obsession a few times before. I hope you all don't think I am crazy! Ha ha!

Have a great weekend!

Preppy Mafia Blog of the Week...

This week I am featured as the blog of the week over at The Preppy Mafia! Yay! Thanks to 2 Preppy Girls and Beth Dunn at Social Climbers for sponsoring me! :-) Please be sure to check out their blogs as there is always something fun going on with these ladies!

Collars up!

Dear Lilly Pulitzer,


Thanks to you, I have spent entirely too much money this summer on all the cute new clothes that have hit my favorite Lilly store. Thankfully my husband found it humorous that I got a little carried away one night on a shopping spree with my mom and sister (who, ahem!, did not help me stick to my budget). Word of caution - do not have a dirty martini and then go shopping unless your husband is as understanding as mine.


XOXO,


Lauren


PS - Now that the blue toile print has come out, I may need to add a few more items to my list.






*Disclaimer* Readers, I write this in jest! I love Lilly and think the summer line is adorable! ;-) Seriously though, my husband is a great man, and I love the fact that he tolerates my affinity for Lilly, the color pink, and china! He doesn't even complain that my stuff takes over our closet! Ha ha!

Menu Monday

This week I am going to be in town all week - yay! - so I planned a weeks worth of meals. I use Lowe's Foods to Go (LFTG). For $4.95, it's a cheap time saver. You shop online and then choose when you would like to pick up your groceries. When you get there, you just stay in your car at the drive up and they bring everything out. To me, it's worth every cent of that $4.95 fee.

When I am planning meals, I get the cookbooks that I am going to be using and skim through them in my kitchen. I keep LFTG up on my computer so that I can add whatever ingredients I need as I plan our meals. I like doing this in my kitchen because I can check quickly to see what I have on hand. Normally I plan out my meals on Saturday or Sunday afternoon.


This is the list that I create each week with our meals organized by night. This is all written on a big post-it that I stick on my cabinet. I like doing this because I don't have to remember which night we are having what. Plus, I can look the night before and see if I need to thaw anything out.

I am not sure what we are going to have tonight or tomorrow night. Hmm... date night maybe?

This week we are having:

Cilantro-ginger flank steak with edamame and rice

Peanut crusted chicken with asparagus and rice

Pork chops with Dijon cream sauce, roasted potatoes, and carrots

Mushroom-Herb Chicken with broccoli and risotto

I am also making peach cobbler - yum!

What are your tricks for dinners during the week?