So...whats for dinner?
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I just wrote a post and deleted with one mysterious key click. Eric? It's better that nobody heard my language.
Here we go again. Last night's dinner was chili made with ground beef and l lb. of pinto beans that resisted cooking to the tender stage. I had quick soaked them but they may have been old. A few beans still had a little too much bite but I enjoyed the chili. Condiments were grated Tillamook cheddar and light sour cream. Dinner will probably be warmed up leftover chili.
I have the house to myself today since dh ventured out to play golf. I did the preliminary work for the cheese spread I'm taking to a Christmas dinner party tomorrow night. A well-known old supermarket in New Orleans called Langenstein's sold this spread (maybe still does) and the recipe is in an excellent recipe collection by the Times Picayune newspaper (NO) titled Cooking Up a Storm. The recipe is published so I don't see any problem with sharing it. I halved the ingredients but am giving the whole amounts.
BETTER CHEDDAR (makes about 2 lbs.)
1 lb. smoked gouda, shredded. 1 lb. sharp white cheddar, shredded. 3 green onions, chopped (white and green parts). 1 cup walnuts, chopped. Homemade Creole Mayonaise.
Mix 1st four ingredients with enough Creole Mayonaise to get consistency of a cheese spread.
HOMEMADE CREOLE MAYONAISE (makes about 1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil. 1 large egg. 1 Tablespoon coarse grainy brown mustard. 1 1/2 Tablespoon white vinegar. 1 1/2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice. 1/4 teaspoon paprika. 1 teaspoon yellow mustard. 1 teaspoon salt. Dash of tabasco.
Pour 1/4 cup oil into blender. Add the other ingredients and blend. Add the remaining 1 1/4 cup oil in steady stream with blender running.
Note: I think you could doctor up a good mayo with some of the ingredients for a version of creole mayo.
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Carole: Thanks for the recipe. Once I read the Apricot Nectar, I realized I had a similar recipe from a lady I worked with years ago. There are only a couple of differences: She called for 3/4 cup of oil instead of 2/3, and she did not add the extra 1/2 cup sugar to the cake. She used juice from two lemons instead of one for the glaze. She used to bring it to work in a 9 x 13 pan (my old notes say bake 30-35 min in that pan).
I think I'll try it without the extra sugar. But now it's back to the grocery store for apricot nectar. Sigh.
The cheese spread sounds great. I was considering a salmon spread for a gathering I have to attend.
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The lemon cake sounds lovely. So does the cheese spread.
Today I made sliced apple rings for Christmas eve dinner. Which unlike every previous year, will be lunch. The kids expressed a desire to have the larger meal earlier in the day. So instead of our usual hunk of beef, we'll go old school and have cornish hens with an orange/cranberry glaze, citrusy haricots verts and scalloped potatoes. Dinner will be a grazing event - a meat and cheese board with the appropriate accompaniments - bread, crackers, fruit, nuts, etc. Desserts will be the yet to be baked cookies, assorted sweet breads and a chocolate cake with mascarpone icing. Tomorrow I get to go shopping for all this. That should be fun (not.)
We had chili yesterday too. I had two small containers of black and pinto beans on the freezer which I used. I'll have to replenish those supplies now. Tonight spaghetti and meatballs is on the menu. We'll have a salad if I can work up enough energy to make one. I used all mine up wrapping presents today.
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I have a recipe for what my friend called lemon bread that I think is similar, will have to try to find it to compare!
Nance, I have the baking done but nary a gift wrapped. Does that make us even? 😁I
Dinner tonight was leftovers from a Chinese buffet from last night's dinner meeting.
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No cooking tonight since dinner will be at a Christmas dinner party.
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Faux-phô (bone broth, kelp noodles, bean sprouts, basil, roast beef), seaweed salad and a couple of Filipino chicken skewers for dinner last night. Brunch today was a veggie egg foo yung (no gravy). Not sure about dinner tonight--Asian leftovers are beginning to bore me. Will def. make a Caprese out of one of our last homegrown and a purchased Cherokee Purple tomatoes, plus perhaps a no-croutons Caesar. Gotta push those veggies!
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My lunch was at an old hole in the wall Italian place that is closing forever in the new year. It has been in business since 1954 and it was the first "real" restaurant we visited when I moved to Houston. Sad to say, when the original parents died the kids didn't agree what to do. The youngest took it over planning to have a sports restaurant. Really....this was always a family restaurant, a place people took their grandchildren, and then they grew up & took theirs. Needless to say his big screen TVs on all the walls failed since everyone told him they would never be back. It reverted to type- small, family restaurant - no more than 25 tables - salads, pizzas, pastas, specialty sandwiches. Outside window for big take out crowds for lunches.
A neighbor & I wanted to say a last farewell since we'd been eating there for 50 years. We had "Spaghetti Works". Pasta piled with meat sauce with mushrooms and meatballs, cheese on top melted in. The best red sauce I've ever eaten anywhere - including any I've tried to make myself. Delicious garlic bread. Would you believe "no calories"? Hmmm, thought not.
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If Bob doesn't come home early enough for us to go out to dinner, I will make a stir-fry out of the last of the Szechuan broccoli (rinsed & drained), bean sprouts, bell pepper, celery, scallions, the heel of a small homegrown tomato, snow peas, duck, and shredded chicken breast over cauliflower "rice."
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Tonight was cold weather comfort food--meatloaf, baked sweet potatoes, green beans, tossed salad with a choice of Christmas cookies for dessert. Have leftover for meatloaf sandwiches! Feeding 7 tonight, goes up to 14 on Sunday. It is good to have family around, both sons with their families, including all 8 grandchildren.
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I keep buying all this food to cook and getting invaded with holiday dunch events. Monday lunch with my DS. Tuesday lunch at the Med Center. Today Italian. Tomorrow I'll have a delicious Patty Melt at another local country cafe with my ex-DH. Saturday my nephew & niece are taking me out after an afternoon concert - heavy appetizers at Eddie V's. Hope the salad stuff in the fridge will last - and the sourdough bread my son sent from San Francisco. I gritted my teeth and froze 1-1/2 loaves. But you can't freeze salad.
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Time to get finished with making/baking for the holiday. So, am making a beef roast in the crock pot for supper. Will then make the leftovers into a beef stew for the weekend.
That lemon cake recipe looks great. Was tempted to add it to my list but stopped myself...maybe in the New Year.
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Going to a dessert party tomorrow night; the annual tray of baklava arrived yesterday from Shattila Near East Bakery near Detroit--a gift from the "shrink" group at Holy Cross Hosp. This year I can't have any, so a platter of 'em is coming with me to the party. My friend usually hosts it to clear out leftover cheesecakes from Eli's outlet (can't eat those either). So I'm gonna drink my dessert: either champagne, Cognac or single-malt Scotch.
Tonight I may nuke some wings and crunch through celery; or make a big Caprese. Getting tired of leftover Filipino chicken skewers and marinated squid; and shouldn't have any more lumpia (fried mini-spring rolls) and pansit (pan-fried rice vermicelli).
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I printed the recipe out and will try it..maybe today, but likely tomorrow.
My clothes fit is not changing, so maybe I'm out eating my exercise. It's easy enough to do. I just got back from running 6.3 miles today. It felt pretty good today with the temperature around 60F degrees. The nearby high school is on Christmas break, but the distance runners on the track team were out doing a long and slow run today. They just breezed by me and it reminded me of 40 years ago! :-)
What I've decided happens with the disappearing posts is somehow the entire post gets highlighted (such as managing to hit the alt key, followed by the "a" key) and the next character replaces all the highlighted text. My alt key is next to the space bar and I'll sometimes hit that when tapping the space bar. I, too, mutter unkind things when I delete an entire post. :-)
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Grueling day today finishing up food shopping. It's crazy out there! I'd like to think I won't have to face the grocery store till 2020, but I know that's wishful thinking.
I had my first much-hyped cosmic crisp apple the other day. My opinion is that it's better than a honeycrisp but not as good as a sweet tango (my current favorite.) The one I had was huge - too big for one person and the skin was very thick and somewhat off putting. I've since seen smaller ones so maybe it was just that particular batch.
We brought home a pizza for dinner. Tomorrow is baking day. At least I don't have to go out.
Minus, I'm sad for you about the Italian restaurant. I love those places. There's one in St. Louis that closed after eons in business. After a couple of years, happily, the kids remodeled and reopened it with many of the old recipes on the menu. I hope they can make a success of it.
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I am in a quandary. Hanukkah is coming up, and obviously I can't eat potato latkes (or sufganyot, aka jelly donuts fried in oil). Because of the (possibly apocryphal) "miracle of the oil" burning for 8 days, it is imperative on Hanukkah to eat stuff fried in oil. I can have sweet potatoes, but sweet potato pancake mixes are loaded with sugar, flour and cornstarch. Now, I could make sweet potato latkes from scratch (as I did a few years ago for "Thanksgivukkah") but I have only a giant sweet potato--about 2 lbs. (Miscommunication between Amazon Fresh & me--I thought "2 lbs." meant a 2 lb. bag of em). I don't think any of my cleavers are strong & sharp enough to cut it into pieces that'd fit into my Cuisinart's feed tube. And I don't have the freezer space to hold the excess. I guess I could take a carb-blocker and eat one potato latke...or fry a slice of low-carb bread...
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A two pound sweet potato?!? Wow.
Would a box grater work?
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Probably, but I'd need a week of personal training first.
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I will have to go to the supermarket at least once before Christmas. I'm out of salad greens and also need green onions for stuffing the pork roast and makings for the creamed spinach dish my sister Michelle likes so much. I always make it for her as one of my Christmas dinner offerings, plus others like it, too.
Last night was re-purposed chili that had already been re-purposed with added elbow pasta. I added grated cheese and heated in a corning ware dish. Side was tossed salad with the last of a head of purple leaf lettuce that had amazing staying power in the refrigerator.
The bathroom scale tells me I should ditch the rest of the cheese spread which calls to me from the refrigerator.
We always said that the family gatherings for holidays would disintegrate once my mother was gone. This year there will be three of the six siblings. One sister has a good reason for not attending. Two brothers prefer to stay home for their own reasons. The numbers will be increased by a niece and nephew and their four children. The youngest child is not quite a year.
It is what it is.
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Last night I finished the remaining two Filipino skewers (turns out they were pork, not chicken--no wonder they were so juicy), a leftover roast chicken wing, and a big Caesar (romaine, Boston, red leaf lettuces) with one of our last small homegrown tomatoes, English cucumber, Cardini's dressing and grated pecorino Romano. No croutons--could have fried some low-carb bread cubes, but wanted to save my carb ration for the Mikey's keto "English muffin" on which I made yesterday a.m.'s Benedict, dark chocolate and ultra-filtered milk for my cappuccinos (my machine's back from the shop--oh, how I missed REAL espresso!). Was soooo tempted to take a starch-blocker and have some of that leftover pansit and lumpia.....no, BAD Sandy!
This a.m. I used the other half of the ersatz English muffin as the base for two old-fashioned creamy British-style ultra-creamy scrambled eggs with truffle oil. Have to use a regular stainless saucepan over very, very low heat because at first you need to whisk the eggs & butter as they cook, and nonstick-safe whisks just won't work well. As the butter melts and the eggs start to reduce, switch to a rubber spatula. Stir constantly--alternate 30 sec. on & off the burner--till fully curdled but still very moist. Pour over the "absorber" of your choice (traditionally, an English muffin, crumpet or rusk made from good crusty bread like sourdough, pain au levain, or pain de mie--but cornbread works well too).
Tonight, not sure. Gordy is coming over to exchange presents--he's flying into Austin tomorrow where Leslie will meet him (having flown in from Houston to see her folks) and they'll go to an AirBnB in "hill country" for Christmas. (Yes, they will be up at dawn to wait in the line for Franklin's BBQ brisket--it's the law). Might do just a Caprese, with Bob eating the leftover Filipino stuff (especially the squid). Not gonna do the plum pudding--too carby (and I can't find it anyway). Weirdly, no fruitcakes arrived this year (we still have half a Collin St. one in the fridge from last year). We will be attending a friend's "leftover desserts" party--will bring baklava to supplement his cheesecakes. Maybe also bring a cheese & nut plate so I can indulge too.
Christmas dinner will be a bit of an outlier this year: Gorrdy & Leslie will be in TX, one friend is spending it with her neighbors out in the far SW exurbs, another at his new home in SC, and our friends who usually host it "just aren't feeling very Christmas-y" this year--not sure if it's economic, health, or just plain sociopolitical despair, plus their son & DIL can't afford to come in from Seattle--and one of them is doing the "My Fitness Pal" app diet anyway so her family recipes are off-limits. (Gonna miss not just her pies but also his family "Green Slime" whipped gelatin/mayo/nut/candied fruit salad). Bob will be working (both his partner and the interventional cardiologist who covers for him are out of state visiting family). So during the day I'll just eat soup or salad, and when he gets home we'll go to Fireside Inn, which is serving Christmas dinner till 3 am. (They're open 365 days a year). That late (probably around 10 or 11 pm) we won't need a reservation; I normally don't like their food--which I find heavy, "clunky," weirdly-seasoned and carby--but their holiday menus are okay, especially if I needn't "clean my plate" but can take home leftovers.
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We always celebrate Christmas Eve with the same couple and usually go to some moderately upscale restaurant and wear red or kelly green. This year, The Barn in Evanston, which was once very much a barn, but is now both a fairly elegant, yet comfortable, steak house. Theoretically could be difficult because both DH and I have been vegetarian for 45 years, though we only met 19 years ago- married for 17. But they have a quite marvelous roasted vegetable plate, beautifully colorful for meand a great pasta dish for DH. So, looking forward to another year celebration with David and Beth, our friends, and a better year for all.
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We have DS1 and his family here and DS2 and family are to arrive tomorrow. We will total 14. "Christmas" dinner will be Monday night as DS2 and family will be going to DDIL's family sometime on Christmas Eve. Dinner menu is beef tenderloin , mashed potatoes, asparagus with browned butter balsamic dressing, tossed salad, homemade rolls (in spite of having 3 gluten sensitive folks at the table), various Christmas cookies and fruitcake. Not certain what we will have on Christmas Day!
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Hi Key
Our college age daughter is eating vegan and she's convinced my wife to go along with it...and I'm going along for the ride. :-)
It's actually been a lot of fun to learn a whole new way of cooking!
DD goes to college about an hour (if there is no traffic) drive from home, so she comes home quite often, but she had to work Thanksgiving and the next day and final exams started on Monday, so we rescheduled Thanksgiving dinner to December 17. It was all vegan. Normally I'll cook a little bit of a lot of things so there wouldn't be a lot of leftovers. This time I made sure she would have enough leftovers for a week, even if her roommates "helped out".
It sounds like a lot of folks are "not everyone can make it" for Christmas. It's the same here. DD is having to work Dec 24 through the 30th and she's meeting a bunch of friends in Denver for New Years...so Christmas dinner will also be rescheduled. Like Carole said, "it is what it is".
Beav....14 people! Wow. I've helped make a "fancy" dinner for 8 to 10 and it seemed like 10 was twice the work compared to 8. Again, wow on 14. I took a look on the internet and there are a lot of recipes for gluten free dinner rolls...no idea how what they are like, but the pictures look good. :-)
Chi, if I were nearby, I have the perfect knife for that monster sweet potato. When my parents were in China, mom needed a stout knife, so dad had a local blacksmith make one. Dad said it was made from a leaf from an axle spring off of a wrecked 5 ton truck. Whenever I pick it up, it reminds me of the movie line..."that's not a knife. THAT'S a knife!" It weighs between 3 and 4 pounds and looks like a cross between a hatchet and a 10 inch chef's knife. :-)One thing I do with sweet potatoes is to oven bake sweet potato hash browns with a bit of fennel mixed in while it bakes. Everyone here loves the licorice taste, so it doesn't last long before it's all gone. This makes good use of the cast iron skillet.
Auntie, my favorite apples are the Pink Lady and Jazz varieties, but I'll eat any apple that happens to be in the house.
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Carole, we seem to be right behind you with your menu, we had chili mac tonight.
Cookie doughs all made today for baking first thing tomorrow. I bought a two rib roast for DH and me only on Christmas night. I'll start dry aging it tomorrow. Cornish hens bought and soon to be dry brined. I'll do some more prep work tomorrow for Christmas eve dinner - cutting up vegs, etc. Tomorrow's dinner will be something uncomplicated.
Eric, I will eat what apple is available too, but I have my faves. I did make some spiced apple rings with pink ladys.
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My family and I were visiting my Aunt Addie (dad's oldest sister) in Kentucky and I think I was 7 or 8 years old at the time.
Aunt Addie had made a large bowl of baked apples for breakfast and she set them down on the table in front of me. "Eat them all if you want."
I tipped the entire bowl of baked apples onto my plate and ate them all.
Aunt Addie was thrilled. My mom.....was not thrilled.... :-)
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Our friends who are not "feeling Christmas-y" this year didn't bother with a tree or decorations. They explained that Thanksgiving was dull because we were out of the country and none of the kids (ours, theirs, their friend from school) were in; and even though we're staying here for Christmas, their son & DIL are in Seattle, Gordy & Leslie will be in TX, Gordy's pal John is staying put in L.A. and his dad is flying out there, and a mutual friend is spending the holiday with neighbors in Minooka. Bob says he'll try to get out early enough Christmas Day that we can invite our friends to Fireside Inn for dinner around 8 or 8:30.
Took a carb-blocker and had some pansit and two lumpia for early supper (mixed the pansit with snow peas & bean sprouts); at the party tonight I had cheeses, paté, keto mini-cookies, parmesan crisps (in Italian, "frico") and some low-carb millet chips. Washed it down with CA champagne.
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Just found out on the Chabad website that the first latkes were made not from potatoes but rather...cheese! (Judith fed warm cheese latkes to an enemy soldier; the warm-milk component of the cheese made him sleepy--and Judith proceeded to decapitate him while he was out cold and saved her village. Sorta gory backstory for a happy holiday marked by miracle, candles, chocolate coins and spinning dreidels). So it'll be almond-coconut flour lemon-ricotta latkes for me and potato for Bob.
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Last night's dinner was pork steaks and baked sweet potatoes. I breaded the steaks with Italian breadcrumbs, browned in a skillet, then finished in a hot oven. The result was a C plus in my estimation. With no apple sauce in the house, we substituted cooked cranberries.
Tonight will be fresh okra cooked with stewed tomatoes from a quart jar of home-cooked tomatoes I bought at the nearby produce stand. The meat will probably be chicken breast slices. I may use an easy recipe I like: spread Dijon mustard on the chicken, press on grated romano cheese. Cook in skillet starting with a cold skillet and browning each side.
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Wanted to wish everyone here a Merry Yule, Happy Hanukkah, amd Merry Christmas!
May all be bright, and all be right, in your world.
Much love
Monica
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Right back atcha, Monica!
Tonight instead of going out for a fancy dinner we had latkes--potato (with applesauce) for Bob and keto-ricotta for me. Yeah, definitely not balanced, but sometimes tradition & ritual prevail over common-sense nutrition.
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Last night was a soup and sandwich night. Tonight is pork chops, applesauce, and salad
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