Big thanks and a tricky meal plan, this week!

A cake for everyone!

First of all, before we talk about the meal plan for this week - I must tell you how proud I am of you all and thank you for being brilliant readers, commenters and loyal fans of Rhubarb & Ginger.

You see, at the end of September, Rhubarb & Ginger had registered a new all time high for page views of 18,953!  In one month!  Wowser!  Yes, I know - how close did we come to hitting the 19k mark?  But then, there's always next month.  *wink*

Great big thank you's go out to you all - across the globe - for coming back and reading my ramblings and salivating (or I hope you salivate!) over my recipes, before trying some of them at home yourselves.

~ applause! ~

Now then, to business and this week's meal plan.

It's a tricky one, because my parents are likely to call us at short notice to come over and put together my Dad's mobility buggy, which they've ordered and which should be delivered some time this week.  They just need some muscles to help put it together and deal with all the packaging - so it's not an onerous task, but it will probably mean we will need a quick and simple dinner for that evening.  Plus, of course, we don't know which day we'll be called on - which has made planning the meals a bit more complex than normal.  After all, we don't want to be committed to doing a recipe that will take several different stages over the course of a day, if we're not going to be here!

I think we've wound up with an interesting collection of meals, that are flexible enough to be cooked by pretty much either of us and which can be moved around (barring Sunday!) to suit.

Here's the plan :

Tues : Stir fried black bean beef, with noodles & vegetables

Weds : Pasta bolognese

Thurs : Oriental pineapple pork, with chinese style kale and rice

Fri : Smoked haddock & leek risotto

Sat : Creamy tomato soup with bacon & cheese muffins

Sun : Chicken Biryani

Mon : Rarebit sausages, mash and vegetables.

Now I don't guarantee that any of these (other than Sunday and maybe Thursday) will happen on the day that they're scheduled for - as it all depends what happens regarding the delivery of the buggy.  The plan is that the Pasta Bolognese is the wild card that can be moved on down the menu - to be had on the day we'll be out.

So fingers crossed, it'll work that way!

Photo c/o www.back-mirror.com

Tonight's Stir fried black bean beef is using the remaining third of the whopping great lump of Silverside that we bought a couple of weeks ago.  It's been in the freezer ever since, just waiting for a good idea like this one.

I found two sachets of black bean sauce in the larder cupboard - still in date, amazingly! - and so hubby volunteered to make a noodley stir fry with them.  The beef is a beautiful piece of lean meat and should be a complete doddle to cut into thin slices.  Just show it a blindingly hot wok and it'll be done - and stay wonderfully tender.

The Pasta Bolognese is, as I say, the wild card.  It'll be just a bog-standard version.  No singing or dancing involved and one of son & heir's favourites, so he'll be happy!

Something like this - c/o BBC Good Food.com

Thursday's Oriental Pineapple Pork is hubby's choice - he's still continuing with his "thing" about pineapple.  Keeps trying to include it in the weirdest of combinations, so hopefully this rather more predictable combination will be a) yummy and b) soothe the savage pineapple monster.

I'm looking forward to the Chinese style kale, as I absolutely adore kale.  Hubby isn't so convinced about the stuff, but this was his choice again - so hopefully it will be presented in such a way that it changes his mind.  It's actually a very simple dish - stir fried kale with garlic, soy sauce and oyster sauce, but I can just imagine the flavours and they're very nice indeed.  They'll go well with the sweet pineapple pork.

Hubby features highly in this week's meal plan, as Friday's Smoked haddock & leek risotto was his idea, too.  I love his risotto's - and so does son & heir (finally), so we're all dead keen on this one.

Little muffins of deliciousness

I thought we'd have an early Bonfire night on Saturday.  Son & heir's birthday is on Halloween, so we never seem to "do" bonfire night in any great way, as we're either all partied out, or financially broke, or both, by then.  I love the idea of a thick creamy tomato soup with bacon & cheese muffins (which are, universally, voted as "my favourite muffin") to dip with.  Who knows, if it's not pouring with rain (yeah, right - the forecast is for rain all week) we might even break out the fire basket and have a mini bonfire on the patio, just to make it perfect.

Sunday's Chicken Biryani isn't going to be one of those "quick" biryani's.  This is one that will be started the day before with a marinade and then move on into long slow cooking in a low oven.  I'm hoping that we'll be able to get the most flavour out of the chicken and spices by trying our hardest to follow the "authentic" way of cooking biryani.  I'll probably do a raita to accompany it, along with mango chutney and some flatbreads.  My mouth is watering already!

No!  Not RABBIT sausages - RAREBIT sausages! ~rolls eyes~

Hubby saw a recipe for rarebit pork chops and wondered whether it was possible to do the same thing, but with sausages.  His plan is to open each sausage out - butterfly it, effectively - and then cover with the rarebit mixture and bake.  I'm intrigued!  I can see how it would work on a pork chop, but with a sausage I'm a little unsure.  However, if it does work, it'll be a fabulous mid week dinner and just perfect for a Monday.  Oh, and it's an excuse to make some mashed potato - and I'll never turn down an opportunity for mash!

I haven't got any plans for any additional makes or bakes for this week, but I am anticipating the cropping of Ruby 2 (the second rhubarb bush) - so we'll be busy freezing the rhubarb in advance of some pre-christmas chutney making!