So...whats for dinner?
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Yup - me too Eric. Because I was raised on the West coast, all of my HS teachers & parents friends had served in the war in the Pacific. So all the stories I heard - in school & out - were from that war. That was true for California, Utah & New Mexico. I don't know if that was coincidence or related to where you signed up. I didn't know anyone who had been in the European theater until I moved to Texas when I was 30.
Thanks Hammer. I don't have a roast on hand but will look forward to trying as the weather continues to get colder.
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The bison filet worked great in the sous-vide. Rubbed with a little ghee, seasoned with salt & pepper, added a sprig of rosemary and sealed it into a ziploc. Once it hit 125, I let it go for about 40 min. or so (I set the machine for 125 and went upstairs to shower, then down to woodshed some alto parts (I hate singing alto harmony, especially mezzo or first alto, since the lines have all the accidentals that form the chords but make utterly no sense on their own and are a bear to memorize)--so probably about an hour from start to turn it off. Seared it in cast iron 1 min. per side. It came out perfectly rare-to-medium-rare, with the grain still apparent (if you sous-vide red meat too long, the texture turns spongy-mushy with no grain, as if it were processed).
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Made beef mince chow mein... nice easy dinner to cook on a very hot day here.
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DH is making beef stew for tonight's dinner. He did the grocery shopping on his own without mentioning his plan to cook dinner.
It's a cold nasty day here. My younger sister, her granddaughter and I are going shopping for the granddaughter. We'll also have lunch. It's nice to know I won't be responsible for dinner!
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Minus, yes, the family coming is both good and stressful. However, they know they are responsible for their rooms, bathroom and laundry. Also breakfast and lunch are basically forage for yourself and clean up after yourself so it is one group meal a day. The major stress is the increased level of confusion when the number of folks in the house is doubled , tripled (and they are also bringing their small dog). Because that is primarily my problem I can adjust so long as my Tamoxifen crankiness does not rear it's ugly head!
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Sharon cooked enchiladas tonight.
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Leftover pizza tonight, tomorrow have to start fresh again!
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Tried ATK's recipe for sous-vide poached eggs—a disaster, even when following directions precisely. First go-round, I loaded the eggs when I turned on the circulator—they came out nearly hard-cooked but with whites that fell apart. Second time I waited till the water came up to temp, but while the yolks were perfect (looked firm until I cut into them and they oozed nicely) the whites were so runny that they dribbled away into the sink, leaving only yolks! I will poach the eggs old-school for tomorrow's Benedict and save the sous-vide machine for meat & fish.
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ChiSandy, that sounds rather frustrating with the eggs, at least you tried!
Tonight I made tuna carbonara pasta, kids complained I had no salad for a side dish....deary me, they have been spoiled I think.0 -
Tonight's dinner menu features crab cakes made with lump crabmeat. Yum.
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Sandy, good to know about the eggs. I've never tried them in the sous vide. Susan used to cook them all the time. Wonder what her secret is. I miss Susan.
Cornbread tonight with sides of polish sausage, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. For me, it's all about the cornbread.
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Tonight was a long time winter favorite: turkey tomato shortbread casserole-- ground turkey browned with chopped onion, stir in 1/3 can cream of mushroom soup, sprinkle with shredded chrese; make biscuit topping with flour, salt, baking powder, 3/4c diced canned tomatoes with juice, mustard and sugar, spread on meat mixture and bake 450F 20 to 25 minutes. Mix and heat the rest of the tomatoes and soup for a gravy. Today was a cold day so a hot casserole hit the spot!
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Dinner tonight was a delicious recipe from an old Joanna Lund cookbook. Actually I combined 2 recipes because I was missing ingredients from each one. Chopped cooked chicken, carrots, peas, evaporated skim milk, a little flour, mustard, a little chedder cheese mixed with biscuits cut into quarters. Served with a side of applesauce with cinnamon. DH and I both enjoyed this one.
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Reader, a version of chicken pot pie?
Dinner last night was not as planned. We decided to eat leftovers. Mustard greens, cabbage/potato/carrot casserole and freshly baked cornbread. Quite satisfying.
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Reader and Carole- any type of chicken pot pie sounds good with the frigid weather we are having!
Carole- my DH would love crab cakes. Do you have a favorite recipe for them?
Chi- You and your culinary equipment are amazing. I would never try sous vide and in 3 or 4 days you have done it 3 times- wow.
Eric- Sharon's enchilada's sound good. May put that on the menu for the weekend.
Supper last night was roasted chicken thighs, baked potatoes, steamed broccoli and a big tossed salad.
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Did some digging on susan’s sous vide eggs, found an old post where she said she followed instructions from seriouseats. Here is a poached recipe, and a soft boiled.
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/10/sous-vide-soft-poached-eggs.html
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/10/sous-vide-soft-boiled-eggs.html
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Cooked Lacey's Cod and it was delicious. I sauteed onions, garlic, bell peppers, mushrooms. Then added artichoke hearts and campari tomatoes. Per instructions, I took the veggies out of the pan & plopped in the cod. When it was almost done I added Raos sauce, put the vegetables back in & simmered covered. Because I had spinach that was a use or lose proposition (and tomorrow is garbage day), I tossed that on top the last couple of minutes. Served over leftover pasta from last night's volunteer thank you dinner at Olive Garden. Angel hair with asparagus.
I only cooked one piece of cod, which I quickly devoured. But plenty of left over veggies to serve tomorrow on Spaghetti Squash.
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I have family coming who have dietary restrictions. One cannot have animal milk (easily solved with readily available soy milk), yeast, or corn/corn oil. Another cannot have gluten, egg white, many of the grains usually substituted for wheat. I'm seeking sources of recipes to help meet their needs while feeding the rest of us. Any suggestions deeply appreciated!
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I think my sous vide poached egg disasters were from using eggs a week past pull-date. And doing it old-school with them didn’t work either—they were so old that there was nearly no white left after putting them into the colander. So I tried sous vide with an egg from a dozen I just bought earlier this week, and it was equally disastrous. Meanwhile, I’m doing some king salmon I defrosted—let’s see if that works. If not, I’ll have cold cuts, tuna salad and chopped liver like I did last night.
When my boiler, water heater FB and internet woes are over I might try Susan’s recipes. (The sous-vide I tried came out like soft-boiled)
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beaver - I followed the Virgin Diet, which is an elimination diet. You cut out soy, eggs, dairy, corn, peanuts, sugar, and gluten. The rationale is that these ingredients often are ones people are either sensitive to or allergic to and can cause inflammation. Here is a link to some recipes that fit with the restrictions. I thought they could work for your guests
https://m.vitalchoice.com/files/catalog/pdfs/TheVirginDiet-CommunityCookbook.pdf
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Carole and Happy, yes it was much like a chicken pot pie - definitely a win with our current brisk weather!
Tonight was a crockpot, healthified version of sloppy joes on bread from the organic market along with leftover mac and cheese and applesauce. A bit carby but I was down 2 lbs at the Dr. Today.
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Thanks, SpecialK. It's late tonight but I'll peruse that in more detail tomorrow. One of them is fairly simple as her absolute avoidance foods are dairy, corn, and yeast. The other one has a much longer list, including gluten as well as many of the grains used in gluten free products(oat, rye, rice, barley ...). I appreciate the help.
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My singing partner's wife is allergic to: yeast, corn, strawberries, shellfish, pork, and raw tomatoes. She's okay with dairy, wheat, rice & gluten, as well as tomato sauce, so pizza & pasta are safe mainstays for when we all go out after a show up in Madison, WI (where they live).
Made the king salmon tonight--it appeared to have been slightly freezer-burned; even in restaurants, I've had the texture turn out weird so I was not optimistic. But this time it was as succulent as the best Atlantic. It was just fine poached (and I reserved a portion to refrigerate after cooking), but insanely good with the final sear. It came out firm but cleaving off in large glistening slabs with a touch of hollandaise on top. Next time, I think I'll sear only the skin side to get it good & crisp while keeping the rest of it rare.
Tomorrow night, grass-fed ribeye.
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Oh, Sandy, wish it were so relatively simple! Her list:
Not recommended foods: hazelnut, mustard, oats, pistachio, rice, rye, sunflower oil
Foods to be avoided: almond, cola, couscous, goat milk, spelt, wheat, wheat bran, wheat semolina, white bean,yeast
Foods not permitted: barley, brewer's yeast, casein, cashew, cow milk, egg white, gluten, malt, peanut, sheep milk
Not certain what she does eat other than meat and veggies. Know she has been a bread and bagel with cream chrese person in the past. It will be interesting!
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I looked through my "red book" and found some things that might work.
I make a garlic mashed potatoes...simmer lots of garlic in "full fat" coconut milk and then add it to the mashed potatoes until it potatoes are the "right" consistency.
I also make an onion gravy with sauteed (until very caramelized and soft) onions and margarine. The recipe says to use (wheat) flour to thicken it, but I would think that corn starch would do well.
The pumpkin soup recipe I have looks to be free of the list of foods.
Carrots glazed in agave.
Salmon in a honey lime sauce.
Chicken, Corn and Broccoli saute.
A pot roast for those that like a very tart "juice" (lots of balsamic vinegar). This has a tablespoon of dijon mustard..so I don't know if that's too much.
Something I will do for breakfasts....cut potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes, toss in oil, salt and pepper, bake in a cast iron skillet for 15 minutes, stir, add cherry tomatoes that have been cut in half and cook another 10-15 minutes, add fennel, sprinkle with spices (I like turmeric and paprika)...serve...
The principal (an Irish nun) of the school where our daughter attended gave me a recipe for a more or less traditional Irish Coddle.
I probably have more in the book....
If any seem interesting, I can send them along.
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Beaver, seems like all the restrictions call for a simple meat and potatoes menu lol.
I've had very good results from all of the serious eats sous vide recommendations I've tried. In general, I have less luck with ATK recipes of all kinds.
Tonight is a reincarnation of the leftover pot roast in the form of beef and homemade noodles. Broccoli will be on the side for contrast.
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Coming up for a breath of air here, and to share some of the dinners I made while caring for DH post op.
DH did have his surgery on Halloween, came home two days later after some blood pressure sorting out, and his actual hip joint is healing well after two weeks of very “unskilled nursing” by yours truly. He struggled with some medical issues related to lingering anesthesia effects. But his appetite was fine, so when not hopping to it with all the other necessary caretaking and house management tasks, I cooked up some new and old fave menu items. Pasta seemed to be a theme, since that was easy. Unfortunately, despite my moving around a lot, pasta managed to keep my lbs on.
One simple change I made was adding sweet potato cubes to my regular kale soup, which we both liked. I almost added some pasta to that, too, but decided we were way over our pasta limit for the two weeks!
We had our fave cod/vegetable puttanesca with little ear pasta the evening DS2 brought the baby over to visit PaPa. She was teething so they were both in pain! We had leftovers of that the following evening. It really is a favorite of mine, and pretty simple to make with a good jarred puttanesca sauce. Minus, I love what you used in your last creation of that!
One night we had turkey/kale meatballs with red sauce with mini penne pasta. I made them with oats instead of breadcrumbs so any gluten free folks could also enjoy them. I was surprised by how tasty they were. And of course happy to get my kale fix in.
Another dinner was a vegetarian chili and salad brought over by my next door neighbor. Lots of appreciation here for that! And some beef stew and mashed potatoes were delivered by my other next door neighbor. DH enjoyed that for two lunches.
I sautéed a balsamic chicken/vegetable dish another night, and again, made enough for leftovers. Salads were also featured nightly. But by the end of two weeks, I opted to keep everything simple since being the only solidly standing adult in the house, I was the sole shopper, menu planner, chef, and clean up committee. Under regular circumstances, I really don’t like regularly donning both creative and maintenance roles, and doing it while fighting a virus made it even more unlikeable. But I sucked it up and got it all done...and unsurprisingly am still struggling with the virus. Boo hoo....
I won’t even bore you with the descriptions of DH’s post op demeanor, which I can only characterize as “man flu on steroids”. Sadly, tho, as he is feeling better, and starting to seem like his old self, he’s also started to have some internal bleeding due to all the anti inflammatories, so we remain in patient and caretaker roles.
Tonight I plan to make some sauteed pork sirloin cutlets, probably with farro since that’s easy on his system.
Beaver, I really feel for you with the speciality diets food prep you are facing...for longish visit. You mentioned all the things that cannot be used, but can they let you know what they can and do safely eat? I find that it is way easier to know the ingredients that I can use, and create from, than the ones that I can’t!
If this is the diet that they follow daily, I bet they have many ideas of menus they create often, and can share some of those ideas with you. It might make things a lot easier in your kitchen. I absolutely disdain all the guesswork I go through for certain family members with specifically nixed foods. I still plan to make a detailed food list which I will distribute to my kids and their spouses so they can just check off safe/preferred ingredients. Life will be easier in my kitchen and their tummies will be happily full! Good luck to you!
Happy, good to see you back! You’ve endured a lot...hopefully waay easier days are in front of you!
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Greetings, all!
I've been "away" for more than a month and can't go through all that the posts I missed during my absence. But hope everyone is doing well.
My husband and I are back from a glorious 3 weeks in France, during which I drank wine daily and ate all the wonderful French things: cheese, charcuterie, cassoulet, duck, gorgeous seafood of all varieties, more dessert than I consume the entire rest of the year...
I worried that might have packed on a few pounds, but we averaged 7 miles of walking per day, so I came home at exactly the same weight.
Now it's back to reality. Made split pea soup in the Instant Pot last weekend, using a spiral ham bone. Tonight I'm making Mac and cheese and adding the leftover ham.
Eating lots of salads for lunch.
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Thank you all for your helpful suggestions! Yes, I will check with them when they arrive but want to have at least one day's meals on hand when they get here. Fortunately, they won't arrive at the same time. The one coming next week is the simpler one, mainly avoiding dairy, corn and yeast. Thinking she will just have to forgo the stuffing at Thanksgiving! Don't know how she will adapt her favorite sweet potato with marshmallow dish since marshmmallows are made with corn syrup. I was intending to let her fix that for her family anyway since DH and I don't care for it. It will all work out, I just like to plan ahead...
Dinner tonight will be rotisserie chicken, baked sweet potato, broccoli and green salad. Nuthin' fancy but sounds good to my taste buds today.
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Lots of good food mentioned in your posts. One that sticks in my memory: homemade noodles.
Cooking for food-restricted friends or relatives is not an appealing prospect. My only restriction is trying not to outgrow my wardrobe. Such a challenge.
Last night was a simple and very tasty meal. Lamb patties with a jar of mint jelly on the table, baked sweet potatoes with butter available, and a lovely salad of leafy lettuce, compari tomato, cucumber, Kalamara olives, avocado, and blue cheese. Onion for dh. Olive oil and white balsamic vinegar dressing.
I will happily share my recipe for crab cakes soon. One essential ingredient is mayo. Crab cakes are very easy to make and cook if you have access to good lump crab meat as I do, for a hefty price. The 1 lb carton I recently bought at a Rouse's supermarket was $24.
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