This week, I made Clam Chowder using powdered goat milk, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Beef Stew, Chicken Nuggets and fries, and Hungarian(ish) Stuffed Bell Peppers.

This was fun.  I used up leftover chicken wings to make my Ramen, and substituted saifun (mung bean thread) noodles.  Developing the broth reminded me of making Pho.  And I found another opportunity to use a couple of the super fresh eggs from the neighbors’ hens.  Which would you eat first?  The chicken or the egg?  😀

I don’t do breaded calamari.  If you haven’t tried it without the breading, I think you’re in for a surprise.  Don’t overcook it!  This recipe with the tomatoes and herbs was a new find for me.  Since tomatoes are my favorite food, I really enjoyed it.  The roasted beets were topped with balsamic vinegar, some pepitas and sunflower nuts, and crumbled feta.

This was a cool way to skewer zucchini and yellow squash.  I just used a vegetable peeler to make the thin slices, then zig-zagged them onto the skewers.  The meat and potatoes were already cooked, so these spent little time on the grill.  Fast, fun, and tasty!

Our 2nd artichoke, growing, and half eaten.

Taco salad bar — again, we each put our plates together differently.  I like mine all together, and he likes his with the hot stuff and cold stuff separate.  To each their own.

Carrot souffle — using up carrots and eggs.  It was super tasty!

Charcuterie platter.  Nothing fancy except the lox.  For the rest, I just raided the pantry and fridge.  So nice to have tasty cold food on a record-setting hot day!

This was one of those times when we each put our plates together a little differently.  Lots of toppings to go on the smashed baked potatoes, into the oven to melt the cheese, then finish with pieces of leftover salmon.

Got to use both of my grill pans for this dinner!  Grilled steak, grilled wild-caught salmon, and grilled watermelon.  Fun!  (The watermelon lost a lot of flavor on the grill, so next time I’ll use a lot more agave.)

I don’t remember the main dish — appears to be something Italian, but obviously the little salads were fun and photogenic.  Sliced daikon radish, sliced cucumber, sliced cheese, and sliced tomato, with some dressing to drizzle on them.

Left to right, I call these bites:
1. Shrimp Louie (salad shrimp mixed with Vegenaise, and pickle slices from our garden a couple of years ago. All eggs are courtesy the neighbor’s hens.)
2. Ham & Cheese with a little sprig of parsley from the garden
3. Caprese Salad (except it’s not basil, it’s beet greens)
4. Deviled Ham (everything left after I made all the other ones, chopped up and mixed with Dijon mustard)
5. BLT (the “lettuce” is micro greens from the garden)
6. Ham & Egg over a tiny hash brown.
Sliced onion strewn around, plus some pickled garlic.

Ours is the little one on the top left.  We were afraid it wouldn’t have much substance to it, so we got 2 store-bought ones to eat with it.  But it was good enough!  We grew one more and had it a few weeks later.  So fun!