I'm baaaaack. Finally.

I'm sticking with my solid D+ for 2014 so far, as February was of similar ilk to January, only one less death. But I have adjusted my brain that MARCH WILL BE NOTHING BUT AWESOMENESS. So far, I give it a C+. But I digress. 

Because I'm still a wee bit addled from this month*, going to begin a series called "My Lunches This Week" where every Sunday(-ish), I'll post what I'll be eating for lunch in the coming week.

So.......<drum roll please>........<fitting since the Oscars are tonight, eh?>..........

The award for Jen's Lunch This Week is........

Creamy Polenta with Tomato Ragout. 

Holy Hosting, Batman.

In the last two weeks of the year, the Chez will have hosted 4 gatherings. The smallest a group of 7, the largest a group of <approximately> 36. We love to host gatherings and house guests, and are really lucky to have a home large enough to accommodate both with relative ease. But wuf. 

To date, three gatherings have happened: two were potluck, which was super fun, and by virtue, fairly stress free. The one for my family's holiday gathering was the simplest of them all though. I have a smallish nuclear family, and with Mi Madre living out of state, it was the 5 Nashes + my brother-in-law (Spouse's lil bro), who was visiting from out West, and his sweetie, who arrived on Christmas Eve.

This year, keeping in mind food preferences, and my family, I went with a menu of two soups, a delicious artisan made bread loaf, and butter. 

For the meat eaters, our friend's fantastic Green Chile Chicken Noodle soup and for the vegetarians, a very easy Red Lentil soup, recommended by a friend at work. 

Spouse and his brother hit up the North Market on Christmas Eve Eve Day and bought a fabulous light sourdough loaf from Omega Artisan Baking that turned out to be perfect. Crusty (but not hard) on the outside, and wonderfully chewy and dense (but not too dense) on the inside. Held up super well to the soups, a great companion to the Kerrygold (unsalted) butter we had decided on, and poof, by the end of the dinner, was gone, baby, gone. 

I had previously made the Green Chile Chicken Noodle soup, as Reverend Al swears by it for when one feels icky, but had never made the Red Lentil. Both are simple and really flavorful, esp with hacks. And I have to say, quick to make. 

The Spouse's Breakfast Burritos.

The Spouse and I have a strange eating arrangement. See, we lived apart for about a year* - by job choice, not marital strife - and in that time, developed "habits". The basic gist is:

• Breakfast - me=protein shake + greens, spouse=breakfast burritos his BFF introduced him to
• Lunch - me=left-overs from whatever I've cooked on Sunday, spouse=usually eats out
• Dinner - me=protein shake + fruits, spouse=protein bar and a glass of OJ

It does vary - sometimes Spouse comes home and makes a sammich , sometimes I go out for lunch; sometimes we go out for dinner or decide pizza sounds delish...but generally, it's the bullet point menu above. 

The arrangement works in a few ways because Spouse works pretty late most days, so if I made a real meal for dinner, we'd be eating most nights at 8:30 p.m. or later. Plus, as mentioned in my first post, I'm less fluffy and want to stay so - as does Spouse.