July 24, 2021

WEEKLY MENU 07.25.21

Easy meals are the star of our Weekly Menu 07.25.21~

Fast, easy meals are the star of the Weekly Menu 07.25.21. We’re grilling, quickly sautéing and basically spending as little time in the kitchen as possible.

Did you know that starfish are really hearty? (And kind of sneaky)

Starfish, like many sea creatures, are able to regenerate (grow back) parts of their bodies. Starfish are better at regeneration than most other creatures. Not only can a new ray grow when a ray is torn off, but if the torn off ray has even a small piece of the central disk still attached, a whole new starfish can grow from the one ray.^[3]p35
Because starfish like to eat clams and oysters, fishermen who gather shellfish have tried for years to get rid of them. To kill the starfish, fishermen would catch them, slice them right in half, and throw them back in the ocean. However, because starfish can grow back parts of their bodies, they were actually increasing the number of starfish.
Wikipedia

Other Cool Facts~ from AwesomeOcean

They have no brain and no blood. Starfish use filtered sea water to pump nutrients through their nervous system.
They can be really heavy. At least for something of their small size, sea stars can weigh up to 11 pounds.
They have a lot of birthdays! The average lifespan of a sea star is 35 years.
A Starfish in not a fish. They’re actually related to sand dollars and sea urchins.
There are around 2,000 species of sea star. They live in cold and warm climates all over the world.
They cannot survive in fresh water. All salt. All the time.
They eat inside out. When they capture prey, they have tiny suction cups to grab ahold of their food. Then their stomach exits their mouth to digest the food, and reenters the body when they’re done eating.

Speaking of eating… on to the Weekly Menu 07.25.21!

We’re going Italian for our Sunday dinner this week, mostly because everyone is jonesing for some awesome Baked Fontina. We do have to warm up the kitchen for a few minutes while it cooks, but it’s not too long, I swear! (A lot, actually. But that’s a story for another time.) Then we’re having a saucy, creamy sausage and rigatoni mix that looks fab. We’re having a simple almond tart for dessert, which I’ll add a little real whipped cream to.

On Monday, we’re having grilled foil packets. They’re in the recipe class of “Hobo Dinners”. Isn’t that a horrible name? It seems like it’s probably not politically correct, either. These ones have potatoes and chicken tossed with a little oil and some ranch seasoning. Wrap them up in individual foil packs and hand them off to your grill-master. Dinner is served, and clean up is a breeze. Don’t feel like firing up the grill? These work great in the oven too.

Erie can’t be the only place that has “Greeks”

It’s one of the original fast-food restaurants. We’ll order a couple ten-packs of hot dogs and hamburgers that are liberally covered in Greek Sauce. Plus fries, also doused with sauce. Who wouldn’t love that? Lest you think we are complete pigs, you should know that the hot dogs, while Smith’s, are pretty tiny, and the burgers are two-biters. Plus they’re all great cold for breakfast.