Living the quarantine life has been one with a flood of different emotions. Stress. Bewilderment. Fear. Sadness. Gratitude. Joy. Contentment. One of the bright spots is cooking with my daughter, Kate. The weekly menu plan idea came from Elizabeth Minchilli and her daughter, Sophie, who are quarantined in Umbria, Italy. The two are sharing their recipes and menus (including videos) via their Instagram accounts. Note: Go follow them!

Many of you asked for a list of the recipes. Well, here you go! Just eat it up!

Monday ~ Midnight Pasta with Garlic, Anchovy, Capers and Red Pepper
On a trip to Florence, Kate was introduced to anchovies on pizza. She’s loved them ever since. I had her in mind when I spotted this recipe. The pasta was loaded with flavor and a bit of spice. The key is to success is quality olive oil and crumbling the red pepper flakes in your palm before adding them to the pasta. This will wake up the spice. I do not make my own fresh pasta. I know…shame on me. My favorite dry pasta is De Cecco. I also like Garofalo.

Tuesday ~ Sophie’s Torta Rustica
As mentioned above, Elizabeth Minchilli and her daughter, Sophie are preparing and sharing some amazing recipes. My torta rustica does lives up to its name-rustic. The taste was exceptional. Due to the crazy hoarding going on here, I was not able to find a puff pastry ANYWHERE! I’ve never made puff pastry dough before and I was a tad intimidated. Then I discovered a stirred dough recipe in the The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. It was simple to make, but the dough was very delicate. Once rolled out and placed in the pie plate it does not bend or mold easily.

Wednesday ~ Beef Tacos with Homemade Butter Tortillas
I know, I know! Tacos on Wednesday instead of Tuesday? Yes, because, honestly, I don’t really know what day it is! Tacos are a weekly meal in our house. I switch it up and use ground turkey and add a can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes or Ro*Tel tomatoes and green chiles to offset the lack of fat in the turkey. I was so proud of my dough from torta rustica, I decided to make the tortillas from scratch. I am so pleased with them. The hardest part is kneaded the dough. It’s my knew quarantine workout.

Thursday ~ Grain Bowls
What do you do when you have a mish-mash food in your kitchen? Throw it into a bowl! This grain bowl was a mix of brown rice, marinated artichoke hearts, olives, roasted potatoes and carrots. Simple and filling with a sprinkle of spices and fresh herbs.

Friday ~ Pizza
Nothing says weekend like a pizza. I use The Pioneer Woman’s recipe. The dough is fool proof. The recipe makes 4 pizzas and it freezes well. There are two kinds of pizza eaters in our house: turkey pepperoni, red pepper, mozzarella and basil or anchovy, tomato, red pepper and mozzarella. Everyone’s happy!

Dessert
For a sweet treat I baked up a batch of Smitten Kitchen’s Consummate Chocolate Chip Cookies. I substituted semi-sweet chocolate chips for the bittersweet chocolate disks without issue. The sprinkle of salt on the top of each cookie was a perfect balance to the sweetness.