The Long Road to Domestication. Part III. AKA Progress.

Well, I'm not sure you are going to believe this... but we have already prepared two of the three meals I planned!

Thank you, thank you. You can hold your applause!
There really is something to having a plan! I definitely don't think I'll ever be a day-by-day planner, but making some decisions about a few meals each week and getting the correct ingredients and recipes for those meals ready to go is like completely revolutionary ya'll! I'm so excited.
So Monday evening we made up the fried egg sandwiches. Delish! And so super simple. Apparently Handsome makes them somewhat regularly (just with the egg and toast/english muffin) and I think he even enjoyed having bacon and sausage and cheese as garnish to his usual. Anyway, think this could go on a more frequent, intentional rotation and might even work for breakfast or lunch sometime. (And I totally want to make scrambled egg, cheese croissants sometime. Actually, I've been wanting to for a while, but I feel more equipped to tackle it now, so maybe soon).
But the real accomplishment has to be the beef stew I made Tuesday! I had some time to chill at the house in the afternoon so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity. And I was able to get my great Mom on the phone at least twice, which was a definite plus, too.
So the other day I had purchased pre-tenderized beef for stew and I floured, salted, and peppered it to my hearts content.
I cooked that in a pot with butter, olive oil and a little garlic.
Then I added the onions.
Next I tossed in a bay leaf, 1 1/2 cups Barefoot Shiraz wine, 2 cups of water, celery, carrots.
Let it simmer.
Then let the whole thing sit in the oven.
And later I added some beef broth and the potatoes.
When we were just about ready for dinner, I cooked some extra wide egg noodles and tossed the stew on top of the noodles.

And there we had it: home-cooked dinner, two nights in a row!
Maybe I am moving forward on the road to domestication!

And yeah, I know. I totally should have taken a photo of the stew on the noodles in a bowl or something. But I can only progress in my life in one area at a time, so be patient with me.
I'm here. And I'm still writing...