It's the usual semi-crazy holiday week, compounded by Cathy being in California. This does strange and peculiar things to my cooking schedule, but certain things have been accomplished, some I even planned to write about at the time before circumstances interfered.

Monday was gaming night, at Drew's, and I just brought the last of the Chinese BBQ Pork for sharing. People seemed to like it.

Tuesday I wanted something simple, and something to use up some green beans in the fridge, so I just simply pan-fried? Roasted? Sauteed? Pan-cooked some mahi mahi just with salt and pepper, then quickly sauteed some fresh green beans in the pan with a bit of lemon juice and garlic powder. Made a very quick smashed potato with some butter and fresh dill I also wanted to use up:

Wednesday, I contined my skirt steak experiments, making, because I was by myself, a vast quantity of chipotle-infused skirt steak. I filled the air with chipotle and heat, found that skirt steak really can take a lot more seassoning than it looks like it can, and made myself some nice lunch tacos with fresh tomato and queso fresco. And then I did it again for dinner, JUST BECAUSE I COULD.

Thursday was Lambert Family Christmas, which included lunch from Taco Bell, the semi-traditional dinner lasagna, and bacon and pancakes on Christmas morning. Then home through the snow to roast some garlic and red peppers, partly because I needed to transform some fresh garlic and red peppers into a more storable form, and partly because I invited Liz over for Christmas dinner, which was a baked penne:

What I did here was take some onions, roasted garlic, a ton of roasted red pepper, and the rest of my mushrooms, and cooked them up with some pesto and balsamic vinegar. To this I added one jar of basic tomato sauce, which I had on hand as the result of a convenienve food desperation dinner three weeks ago. I stirred a box of whole grain penne (cooked to just under al dente) to this sauce, spooned half of it into a glass baking dish, added a layer of fresh mozzarella, added the rest of the sauce, and another layer of cheese, and just baked it until the cheese melted, about ten minutes at 350.

Today I'm trying to get my kitchen clean, so I will probably be doing leftovers, which means more skirt steak, only probably in lettuce wraps this time because I'm completely out of taco shells. The curse of bachelorhood.

Tomorrow I shop for Monday gaming at my place, and I am still at a complete fucking blank about what to make. Hah.