I’m trying this new thing once a wekkwhere I cook a meal with more ‘meat’ than we need for that one meal so I can use it the next night for a second dish.  I don’t usually care much for brisket, but decided to braise a rather large piece in the oven with some wine, beef stock, and veggies.  Then I caramelized about 1 1/2 cups of sliced shallots to fold into the mashed potatoes (which I also usually find to be on the ‘meh’ side).  There are no words to describe how good those potatoes turned out.  OK, well I guess there are words.  Use Yukon Golds, and make sure the milk and butter are heated up before adding to the potatoes or you’ll end up with a glue-ey mess.  Add some salt and freshly ground pepper…and then fold in those delicious caramelized shallots….YUM!  This meal was mostly for SQ, he’s such a meat-and-potatoes guy, and I was worried that he was going to eat all the brisket.  I’m using the leftovers to make a pappardelle pasta tomorrow night.  Yes, I did this last week with those chickens, and got a spicy Pad Thai out of it.

Well, my wireless just went down as I went to publish this post, so I lost most of what I had typed.  I was blathering on about still needing to re-install my Rosetta Stone French and pick up with using it.  And getting a good idea for another way to practice my French from the movie ‘Eat Pray Love’ (yes, I know, she was practicing Italian….the good idea is transferable).  Oh, and I’m going to Cleveland next week, and will be up there all week every week for pretty much the whole month of March.  SQ’s calling it the ‘culinary dead zone’.  I was thinking that I will miss my kitchen and that maybe one of my co-workers would let me cook a little meal at their house??