what's cookin'?

I'm not sure why, but every year around this time I go back through cookbooks old and new-- and the pile of magazine clippings I've circled and put in plastic pages in a binder--and reinvent my weekly routine. I think it's a combination of a jumpstart from all the holiday baking I've done, excitment about new cookbooks, and a determination to eat out less often. Don't worry, it doesn't last long. Soon enough we'll be back to the same-old-same-old. But, for the next few weeks anyway, I'm trying some new recipes and rediscovering some old ones. So far, we've had meatloaf and chunky mashed potatoes from Joy of Cooking (an oldie but goodie) and chicken scallopine with linguine from an old Southern Living (not so tasty). I like to make my meatloaf in three small loaf pans instead of one big one so that we cook two and freeze one.

Tonight, it's pot roast sort of from the Dinner Doctor but I'm mostly making it up as I go along. I found it strange that the Dinner Doctor doesn't include instructions for making the pot roast in a crock pot, and I'm too chicken to put a pot in the oven all afternoon, so I'm using the crock pot anyway. I threw in some potatoes and carrots near the end just for fun, though Emily is already telling me (over and over again) that she does not like carrots (must have eaten way too many as an infant.)

Later this week we'll have Dinner Doctor's corn soup and Bon Appetit's penne with tomato cream sauce. We'll see how they turn out.