My Husband’s Weekly Dinner Assignment
May I just say that I have waited 48 years to assign an evening meal each week to my husband. Occasionally he grills, occasionally he reheats, always he eats, but seldom does he prepare an entire meal, let alone plan the menu. It was time. The ‘Ole Buckeye now has a weekly dinner assignment. Thursday.
I must explain his first Thursday. During week #32 the ‘Ole Buckeye pondered his new assignment. He asked for advice and came up with a crock pot meal. It was familiar to him because we had concocted the recipe together. Luckily all the ingredients were on hand.
Thursday arrived. It was to be in the low 60’s, overcast with rain early. We decided to go to Williamsburg and take advantage of the break in the weather. During the winter months much of Colonial Williamsburg is closed. However we were surprised to find that nearly everything was closed for the day.
Obviously you can walk through the colonial city but the shops and exhibits are not in operation. We elected to go to the museum. We have only visited the museum once before. We normally prefer to be outdoors and enjoy the artisans and listen to the historic players.
Visitors were few and far between and we decided to take two tours at the museum. The first tour was dedicated to American Folk Art, a collection initiated by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and the second was devoted to the huge collection of Furniture. It is truly amazing what you can learn if you take some time for a guided tour. In the past with limited time we would simply walk by exhibits on a self-guided visit. I have found that our trips to Williamsburg have made us appreciate the artisans and trades, learn much more history and how it affects us today and appreciate the living gift and the foresight of John D. Rockefeller Jr. We have the good fortune of living close enough to pick our days to visit. It has also spawned an interest in visiting the American Folk Art Museum in the upper west side of Manhattan the next time I visit my sister.
As the day came to a close I realized that the ‘Ole Buckeye indeed had a plan to provide for his Thursday dinner assignment….out.
Off we went to the Second Street Grill.
Second Street Restaurant – an American Bistro in Williamsburg, Virginia
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This bistro was suggested to us by a veteran we met on our last visit to Williamsburg and proved to be a delightful spot. For his first Thursday assignment the ‘Ole Buckeye provided a delightful dinner accompanied by a speciality beer for him and a glass of wine for me.
His dinner pick actually surprised me…a chicken and rice casserole. (something he could have at home).
The menu description: Creamy Chicken Casserole: Grilled Chicken Breast/Long Grain Wild Rice/Creamy Mushroom Alfredo/Winter Greens/Roasted Butternut Squash/Mushrooms/Panko Parmesan Topping
It was delicious and provided an impetus to adapt my own chicken and rice recipe.
I decided upon a vegetarian gnocchi after discovering that the pork and pumpkin lasagna was no longer available for the evening.
Vegetarian Gnocchi: Butternut Squash/Charred Tomato/Mushrooms/Winter Greens Potato Gnocchi/Beurre Noisette/Charred Lemon
This was an outstanding vegetarian entree and I will definitely attempt to recreate it at home, especially after discovering a cauliflower gnocchi recipe that I recently added to my “Look’s Good Enough to Try” Pinterest Board.
The ‘Ole Buckeye’s dinner assignment and First Thursday proved to be a success, in fact, not only the dinner, but the entire day. By the way, the servings were so generous that we Dined Out and Ate Twice!
It looks like Thursdays could prove to be exciting. Why didn’t I think of this sooner?
