What to Cook Next?

I was getting into a pretty good groove of cooking a nice meal on Sunday nights and having something to write about. This week we shook things up a bit – cooked dinner last night, and will be ordering greasy Chinese take out for dinner as soon as B gets here. (And I’m totally excited for crab rangoons and egg rolls!!)

Last night’s meal was nothing too exciting. Swordfish steaks with roasted potatoes, green beans sautéed in garlic herb butter and a garden salad. The swordfish had an herb rub made from fresh herbs, kosher salt, olive oil and lemon zest. It added a very nice flavor to the fish, which despite the odds working against me, was cooked perfectly. (For the first few minutes of broiling, I forgot to leave the oven door ajar, and it took 5 minutes longer than the How to Cook Everything guy said it would.) My issues with the meal were that I think I used too much butter on the green beans, and the potatoes weren’t as hot as I wanted them to be (since the damn fish took too long to cook).

But fortunately, B – the dear, sweet man that he is – had no complaints. He’s making this too easy on me. Then again, I’d be upset if he didn’t like what I cooked, so I should count myself as lucky that I have a guy who seems like he will only tell me that he likes my cooking!

Chinese takeout aside, I’m at a loss for what to cook next. There are so many important days coming up (Super Bowl Sunday, Valentine’s Day and B’s birthday), so I need to pull a list together and start planning. Super Bowl Sunday will most likely consist of a bag of Jax and a six pack of beer… maybe some potato chips and onion dip. If I decide to get fancy, it’ll be with shrimp cocktail. And let’s face it, as much as I enjoy cooking, I’m not cooking on Valentine’s Day.

 Here are a few ideas I’m contemplating:

• Homemade pasta… my mom got me the pasta maker attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer for Christmas. I’m dying to make some spaghetti. Which means I need to make some more sauce – good sauce this time (I keep having flashbacks to the sauce I ruined with burnt meatballs the first time I cooked for B).
• Cioppino… I can’t forget the delicious spicy seafood stew I had at RM Seafood in Vegas. And it was served with pasta, so I can kill two birds with one stone with this meal.
• More mussel experimentation… I wrote about cooking mussels a while back, and I need to try a few more sauces. When B and I were in Maine, we had mussels steamed with cider jack. If I can figure out a way to only have to buy one bottle of cider jack instead of a six pack, I may give this one a shot.
• Mexican fiesta… Lindsay and I were planning a Mexican fiesta for the Patriots tailgate back in October, then Padraig shut us down. (And yes, it’s okay to be shut down for lobster and steamers. So I’m not really complaining.) Not sure if Lindsay still has all the sauces and seasonings she had a few months ago, but if so, we should get this rescheduled. (Lindsay, if you’re reading this, let me know what you think!) Or I can just wait until I’m in Mexico in 41 days and have it cooked for me. Hmm… this may be a better idea. (Sorry, Lindsay.)
• Birthday cake – from scratch – for B… this one needs some planning, since we are going to Mexico for his birthday. So, the cake will have to be either early or late. B was one of the victims of the bland made-from-scratch cupcakes I served at the aforementioned Patriots tailgate party, so I do have a little redemption coming my way.

Anyone have any other suggestions? Anything you’d like to see me embarrass myself attempting to cook?