Be It Ever So Humble...

In case you hadn't notice, I've been really busy lately, and as much fun as it's been to be out and about, taking advantage of all the interesting activities going on in the city, all those movies, theatrical productions, and restaurants cost money. I had a bit of a rude awakening this week when I received a credit card bill for $1500, about as much money as I make in an entire month. Life in the big city is expensive! Clearly, it is time to scale back and stay home more. Time to get my recessionista on!

So tonight, instead of going out with Justin, we decided to stay in and do dinner and a movie the cost-effective way -- by cooking at home and watching a DVD from Justin's collection. I'd had my eye on a garlic-mustard glaze for grilled meat from Smitten Kitchen for a while now (it's been in my New Year's resolution recipe queue for months), so I decided to give that a whirl, along with the hasselback potatoes that have been all over the blogosphere lately, and Mom's recipe for green beans with bacon.


Very, very rarely do I prepare meals that involve a meat and two side dishes. Although I have few qualms about sinking time into elaborate baking projects, when it comes to main courses, I just can't be bothered. Generally, the most amount of dishes I like to dirty to get dinner on the table is two, and that's if I'm making pasta and need one for the sauce and one for the noodles. Also, I really hate touching raw meat, so basically every dish I make that involves meat has either ground beef or turkey, or sausage, which means I adhere to a pretty basic diet of soups, pastas, tacos, taco salads, and sandwiches.

That's why I felt like I needed to document this meal for posterity -- because such occurrences are a rarity around here. Oh, and the meal was delicious, by the way; I've got skills, I just elect not to use them very often.