last thursday's dinner menu was garlicky grilled chicken, portobello, and radicchio salad. it's basically just brushing with a marinade and grilling all of those three ingredients, and tossing them together with some watercress. the grilled chicken was my favorite part, had a nice taste to it. then the portobello. the radicchio was okay too but it was my first time having it and i think having it grilled may have to be an acquired taste. the watercress, on the other hand, was not the tastiest. i'm not sure if that's just the strange taste watercress always has to it, or if we had bought it a few too many days in advance. it also had a lot of stems, which tended to interfere. so while i probably wouldn't make the recipe again, i would make simply the chicken and/or portobello portion of it, and add another side.

friday i ventured to make the peachtree pork salad again. it was still different from the original recipe because, if you recall, i had already made the vinaigrette with raspberry jam. all in all, it was a pretty easy recipe and tasted good. i liked the raspberries the best, they were so sweet! katie, who was in town for the weekend, wanted to know what kind of chicken was in the salad.

saturday i successfully made my first batch of gnocchi. they were actually really easy to make. i made lemon gnocchi, using potatoes and GF flour. dough doesn't always hold up with GF flour as well as with regular flour, but this came together very nicely. probably because of the potatoes. fresh lemon zest and juice made it smell wondrous while cooking and eating them. the sauce was tasty too, but quite rich; it was basically butter thinned with chicken broth and lemon juice. i served the gnocchi with some fresh oven-roasted green beans. i tossed the beans with chopped fresh basil and rosemary and olive oil. after roasting, i tossed with a little of reduced balsamic. finally, i made cranberry walnut bread, and it tastes really good! it holds together very well, especially for being gluten-free. i'm starting to believe that you can make anything gluten-free and have it turn out just as nice. it's just all about experimenting with and learning about the different substitutions for flour and in what proportions to use them in. it's quite fun, i must admit!

sunday i decided to whip up a loaf of multigrain bread in the breadmaker since we were out of sandwich bread. besides, homemade bread always beats out everything else. for dinner we had a late father's day dinner. guava ribs (from jen and bryan's cuban cookbook) were the main character, where were delish. the barbecue sauce is supposed to contain guava paste, but the mexican market was all out! so jen picked up a jar of guava jelly from the grocery store, and i just simmered the sauce for as long as i could, which helped thicken up the sauce. i also reduced the vinegar to cut down on liquid content. coconut rice with black beans and fried plantains were the supporting actors, and let me tell you, they did a good job. i love coconut rice, and black beans too. oh and plantains haha. basically i just love cuban food, okay? for dessert jen made an assortment of empanadas. mango, chocolate, and guava (and cream cheese of course). and some a combination of two. seeing a guava empanadas require guava paste (and recall there was none to be found), bryan suggested buying guava nectar and reducing it. well, it turned out just like guava paste! the 33-ounce box of nectar didn't turned out much paste at all, but hey, that's what happens when you reduce something. so nice job, team, we made it work!

i work these next two nights, but wednesday for dinner i am planning on chilled tomato-tarragon soup with croutons. i can't decide if i actually want to serve it chilled or warm. the croutons are actually slices of baguette, and i will be making a GF one. the recipe i have calls for a few flours that i don't have and pick n' save doesn't either, so i will either make substitutions or try to find them at a specialty store.