So...whats for dinner?
Comments
-
Mae - looks delicious. I'll have to remember to toss in chickpeas.
0 -
The cat was what I call a "love slut". I'd go into the room where we were letting him relax and he'd come out of his hiding place in the closet to rub against my leg. When I'd sit down in the chair, he'd jump up into my lap and settle in place for ear rubs and if I laid on the bed, he'd lay next to me for ear rubs. If I didn't pay sufficient attention to him, he'd start tapping my hand and if that didn't work, he'd start kneading with his paws...and if that didn't work, the kneading included claws. :-)
Dinner tonight was the vegetable soup I froze as leftovers from my last 8 quart batch of soup. And, rising in the oven is sourdough. I didn't get started on the sourdough until after noon and then the day kind of went every which way, so I'm a bit behind on that.
DD had her car in the shop and it was done earlier than expected. DD had tested positive for Covid a couple of days ago, her boyfriend is in California and no one wanted to give her a ride to the car shop. She says her symptoms are being a bit more tired than usual and a runny nose; nothing else. Anyway, I and a friend went to get her car and drop it off at her apartment. At the same time, Sharon was driving her mom to the doctor to see about dealing with kidney stones (3, all around 1/2cm in size and causing her quite a bit of pain). Her mom's car wouldn't start, so she had to figure out how to get her mom (barely mobile) into the 4WD 1 ton pickup truck that has the camper on it. They managed, but the doctor said "no extra people in the office" so Sharon went home and when she returned to pick her mom up, she brought a step stool. Sharon said that the stool made things easier...not easy, just easier....
That salad looks good, Illimae. I think we have most of that in the refrigerator or pantry....maybe something like that for lunch tomorrow
It's been a bit cooler here (high in the upper 50F degree range) with 25-35mph winds. So, there is a good chance that we will make a pumpkin soup tomorrow. It's quite rich, very filling and really warms one up.
0 -
Love slut, lol
0 -
Both my kitties are love sluts. Happy gets insanely jealous of anything or anyone that diverts my attention from nuzzling and petting him: Saturday, he threw up on my acrostic puzzle book (but only on the front page, nowhere near the puzzles); today, during a Zoom rehearsal for a Bar Show number, he kept walking across my lap, hogging the camera.
Had a (hopefully) uneventful mammo today--had to redo one view because of a slight motion artifact. But because I'm back to routine annual screening rather than diagnostic, I got sent home rather than waiting for a radiologist to read the films. Fingers crossed there's nothing in my patient portal inbox in the next couple of days--back in 2015 (my last "routine screener") the tech said I should get a "letter" in a week, but the very next morning there was a message in my inbox that there was a "focal asymmetry" in my R breast, which led to ultrasound & then biopsy...and here I am 5 years down the line. I shouldn't have, but for old times' sake I stopped in at Hoosier Mama Pies and got a slice each of passionfruit meringue and dark chocolate cream to go--it was my go-to after the biopsy and each radiation session back in the day--but had only a sliver of each for dessert tonight. I can't believe I used to be able to eat a full slice and want more.
For dinner, we ordered out from Wing Hoe, an old-school Cantonese-American joint (reminiscent of those of my Brooklyn youth) in an old mansion that will be closing Dec. 12. Not due to the pandemic--in fact, for the past few years they've done mostly takeout and have been busy "A.F." since the shutdowns began--but because the elderly owner has been at it for 40 years, and the offer he got from a developer for the mansion & parking lot was just too big to turn down. Sigh--it won't be Christmas Eve (those of you here who are "members of" my "tribe" know what I'm talking about) without them.
We had all the stuff I normally shouldn't eat (I took a starch blocker): wonton soup (Bob's hot & sour was way too cornstarch-thickened for me, and I ate only one wonton); a puu puu platter (sparerib, crab Rangoon, fried shrimp, egg roll--I didn't eat the Rangoon nor the shrimp), char siu pork (sauce on the side), shrimp kow in white sauce, and yang chow fried rice (a couple of Tbs. did it for me). Enough leftovers for tomorrow.
0 -
I cooked chicken and sausage gumbo yesterday and it turned out delicious. The brown rice turned out just right, too. I had some home-cooked okra and tomatoes and andouille sausage in the freezer.
I like to add gumbo file to the pot the way my mother did, but dh likes adding it to the bowl so we do it his way.
The scalloped tomatoes sounds interesting. Details?
It's mustard greens season. I may go to the nearby produce stand today.
0 -
I had mustard greens for the first time in New Orleans at the USO lunch show in the WWII museum and fell madly in love with them. They were between slices of the pork roast they served. I asked what they were and expressed how good they tasted to the waiter. The waiter told the chef and he sent out a generous portion to me. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find them in PA and wish I could. Now I can find all the collard greens and kale anyone would want but I don't have a taste for either. So I envy you being able to find them locally.
0 -
"The girls" are good to go for another year--got the "all clear, see you next year" mammo form letter in my patient portal inbox this morning.
Leftover Chinese food tonight--early dinner, as Bob has echo-readings at zero-dark-thirty tomorrow.
0 -
That's great news Sandy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
0 -
Tonight is 1/2 a grilled NY Strip with creamy garlic Brussels sprouts, roasted carrots and garlic bread from leftover rolls. It’s delicious and my 1st time grilling this year. I’m the griller here (DH can get distracted and overcook). I missed it but couldn’t grill when I couldn’t eat, too sad for me.
0 -
illi, I am intrigued by your creamy garlic brussel sprouts. Could you share your recipe?
Our dinner was the next to last of the turkey, smashed yellow potatoes with gravy, green beans with lemon oil and vinegar, and the last bit of cranberry sauces. Kinda like T-giving but not so close as to be totally boring! Have cubed the last of the turkey breast, topped with bbq sauce and will fix with mac and cheese tomorrow. Getting comfort food in before it warms back into the 70s next week
0 -
Illimae, I don’t think that it’s just because I rarely eat beef, but....BOY! Does that look delicious! It would have been tough to go through a non-eating period when you make such delectable meals. Happy for you that you are back at the table....and beside the grill!
Special, thank you for the recipe for the potato patties! Last night we had fresh baked cod, butternut squash, salad, and I finally used the remaining mashed potatoes from T-giv to make “your” potato patties. DH was delighted and I managed to scarf down a few myself. It’s probably a good thing that white potatoes rarely make an appearance in this house. They were good!I have been busy (preoccupied!) making masks for my sister’s school. She works in a small rural town in VT, which has finally been catching up with everyone else in terms of positive Covid cases. Her school has in-person learning, and she recently expressed concern about the masks the students wear are woefully inadequate for safe daily wear. I know she is worried about her exposure to Covid, especially since she lives alone and is in her late 60s. So, given that she is a very independent gal who never asks for help, I decided that I would “gift” her with a bunch of kid masks that she could give to their school nurse for the neediest kids there. I’m hoping it might “prime the pump” for the town to start a little “sewist brigade” to keep the masks in supply for as long as they are needed. Our town here has so many people making masks that any time there is a need in the schools or town agencies, and beyond, in MA, those needs are met pretty quickly. Once again the ongoing inequity in our country becomes evident, sadly.
We’ve been eating kale soup a lot this week, and ALMOST had a week’s worth of turkey rice soup. DH is moving into a new sphere....deciding that he can not only shop for groceries....but can try to cook them too! Yay! Except, after making a lovely turkey broth with the T-giv carcass, he made a soup that smelled delish and he was quite proud of....until he decided to add rice. When he went back to the kitchen to check on it, it was no longer soup but thick turkey rice porridge. Unfortunately, I don’t even like soups with rice...let alone turkey rice porridge. He managed to finish a few bowls of it over the week, but definitely decided it will NOT make it into any recipe box he starts! But definitely gets anA for spirited effort! 😉 I do love that he is, after 47 years, interested in expanding his cooking skills beyond the showy and delicious paella he makes a couple of times a year. A true secondary gain of the Covid quarantine for us. I am not even close to as productive as he has been while we’ve been hermits.
We have had such mild weather here over the past few weeks, but are expecting snow this weekend. I would be quite content if it bypassed us. Tho it sure beats drought feeding fires that the fire fatigued folks in CA are experiencing again. Do you get remnants of ash, Eric? I recall in August we had days of no sun in NH that was related to the West Coast fires. We are certainly all connected.
0 -
Carole the baked scalloped tomatos are a loose rendition of one from The Joy of Cooking, original. I use a square, low (old pyrex) dish. Rough chop (or use 1 can) of all the tomatoes and place in the dish. In a small fry pan add about 2 tblsp. butter, a cup or 2 of panko or breadcrumbs, and about 2 tbsp of brown sugar, then salt and pepper if you use it. Stir fry until toasted then pour mixture over the tomatoes. Grate a little nutmeg over the top. Bake for about 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Very forgiving on amounts and we like it.
Tonight as DH said "Dinner smelled better than it tasted." Greek chicken thighs in the crockpot. Garlic, olives, sun-dried tomatoes and broth did ver little for the flavor. And over bland couscous. The best part of the meal was the tzatziki and lavash. We use very little added salt and I'm wondering if I rinsed away all the flavor. A dud. Saving grace was it really only made one meal!
0 -
Salt often makes the difference between savory and meh. Not so much salt as can be identifiable as such, but just enough to enhance underlying flavors (sometimes, even sweetness). The late Italian chef Marcella Hazan once conducted an on-camera demonstration: a blindfolded tasting of two red wines. The participants all picked the second one. Turns out, though that both were the same red, but the second of the pair was sprinkled with just a few grains of table salt (not even a pinch or dash).
We splurged and bought a black Perigord and a white Alba truffle for cooking this week. (Eataly had a sale). They keep only about a week (10 days, tops, for the black) so we will use them on anything in which we'd normally have used truffle oil & truffle salt. (Chefs hate those oils & salts because they're "spiked" with the synthetic "essences"--not actual extracts--of truffle aromas, may never have been near an actual truffle, and they claim that it blunts people's ability to appreciate the real thing. I only buy truffle oils and salts with no "truffle essence:" the salts have pieces of truffle, the oils are a base of olive in which truffle pieces were steeped). I see a lot of scrambled eggs and cauliflower risotto in my near future, maybe zoodles & whole wheat spaghetti cacio e pepe (hold the pepe). Gonna haul out the truffle shaver, which I'd only used for chocolate over the past five years. Black truffle in the scrambled eggs, white shaved over the risotto or pasta already on the plate.
Also got salmon & whitefish roes--had them with the remainder of the Mumm Napa rose bubbly we opened last night, to celebrate my uneventful mammogram. (I had mine on cucumber slices, Bob had whole wheat crackers).
0 -
Reader, thanks for the recipe. I have the original Joy of Cooking and the revised one, too.
Last night's dinner was enjoyed by both of us. Warmed up chili with sour cream and grated cheddar, cornbread, and a nice salad with the rest of the butter lettuce and additions like avocado and blue cheese. DH has more additions than I do.
Tonight will be the second round of chicken and sausage gumbo with a salad and probably some French bread from the nearby Piggly Wiggly.
Mustard greens, turnip greens and turnip roots are grown in the winter gardens in this area. My parents preferred mustard greens. They ate the turnip roots but my mother seldom cooked turnip greens. She never cooked collard greens, which are leathery and bitter. I tried cooking collards a couple of times and wasn't converted to liking them.
0 -
Hooray for the uneventful mammogram Sandy! Always good to get those I can relate.
I love greens of all kinds, even collards (if they’re cooked well - something I’m unable to do .) My favorite though is a mix of different types - usually turnip, mustard and collard. Growing up we had mostly mustard and turnip from my grandfathers garden. I will eat kale if it’s mixed with others and chopped small. There is a bbq joint near here that I patronize just for their greens. Don’t know how they do it but they taste just like my grandmother’s.
One more room to paint this weekend. Don’t know what dinner will be - probably flank steak or possibly breakfast. I’ve been craving pancakes or waffles but can’t do them for breakfast because they slow me down even with a heavy insulin dose.
Hoping the decent (50s) weather holds out.
0 -
chisandy - yay for a normal gram! I love me some "unventful" results.
DD has my MIL's well used copy of Joy of Cooking, and it sits right next to MIL's vintage-ish KitchenAid mixer on her kitchen counter.
Dinner last night was spinach and ricotta ravioli with marinara and a ciabatta sliced horizontally and made into garlic toast in the broiler. Our turkey is gone and I put the remaining ham in the freezer for another day - we are over the T-Giv leftovers for the moment. Tonight will involve kale in some iteration, likely salad but maybe soup? We had some chilly weather earlier this week that prompted a change of sheets to the cozy fleece ones, but now back to normal for the time of year. DS arrived in CO last evening, which I am relieved about because he was hauling a big trailer and I was not relaxed about his travel. He texted me a cute pic of his truck with trailer right next to the Welcome to Colorado sign. He reports to the Army base fire station on Monday so has a few days to get things situated. He has a good friend about 25 mins away that helped him unload last night. I am sure he is relieved to be there finally, this is the culmination of a many years in the making dream of his to live there. CO is def colder than VA so he might need some kale soup...
0 -
I made pumpkin soup last night and Sharon made enchiladas, so we have dinner set up for a few days.
Special, glad your DS made it to his destination. Maybe, to hold the kale soup, a soup tureen for a house warming gift?????
I think I'm going to take a day off from the yardwork and work on my old Jeep truck. It needs new engine mounts and I just got them in the mail a couple of days ago. On that truck, it's an easy job.
0 -
eric - thanks, me too, I needed some quality sleep! Since he is my chef de firehouse, he would actually appreciate a soup tureen, but he is single and will be living alone for the foreseeable future, so I may hold off on that idea for a minute. I will likely send e-giftcards for outdoor wear and equipment to DS so he can stay warm and dry. The funny thing is that I am getting a set of kitchen knives for less domestic DD, she has submitted a request to Santa since she says her current knives are crap. I too was rooting for you to get to keep the blond tuxedo kitty, but I am glad it went home too to its little person! Do we have an explanation for why it was out and about where you were?
I forgot to add earlier that I had my first Dot's pretzels - I LOVE THEM!!! I found them at Target, of all places. Got them for a stocking stuffer for DH as he loves pretzels. I usually need them to be covered in chocolate or have peanut butter inside, otherwise they are not my thing, but Dot's are so good! Apparently our cat thought so too - he ripped open the bag and got one, but I think they were too seasoned for him since I found part of the pretzel later on the floor of my closet, lol!
0 -
Shepard's Pie
0 -
Kitty escaped, was the answer. The little girl's aunt gave the kitty to the little girl and had only been at the new home for a week It was probably just enough time for them to let their guard down a bit, but not enough time for kitty to figure out that the new place was its forever home.
Good knives are a wonderful thing. I ended up buying a collection of knives...multiple manufacturers...with each knife being chosen based on how I liked how it felt in my hand. Sharon had her doubts about me spending so much on the knives, but now says that if I need some more knives like that to just go get them... :-)
0 -
eric - oh no, escaping kitty! I’m glad you were able to get the kitty back to the new home!
I have found that for the last few years I have been more inclined toward serrated blade knives. I feel like I have more control with them. My exception is thinly slicing raw meat or bacon, but my non-serrated knife of choice is a santoku that is pretty short. I am also about how the knife feels in my hand. I have small hands and long fingers, but I don’t like the handle to be too heavy or the blade too long - it seems to be how the balance is - probably true for all of us.
0 -
Except for the bread knife, the knives are standard blades, but are sharp enough to cut a very over ripe tomato without making a juicy mess.
I also have two "family heirloom" knives. Dad said both were made in post WW2 China from the springs of a defunct duce and a half truck. The big "cleaver" weighs several pounds and reminds me of a hatchet. I haven't had the need to use it. It's been more than 50 years ago, and I probably didn't really want to commit the process to memory, but I do recall it being used on a recently slaughtered steer. The smaller one is about half again bigger than a standard cleaver and I use it to cut squash and pumpkins.
0 -
Yup--the only single-maker "set" of knives I own are 6 Victorinox rosewood-handled steak knives. Non-serrated, but sharp & easily re-sharpened. Most people can't believe they're better than those old-school partly-serrated giant steakhouse knives, but they are. My daily go-tos for cooking are a Henckels serrated parer, Shun serrated sandwich knife (also good for tomatoes), and a 6" Henckels wood-handled chef's knife. I tried to like Santokus, but they're hard for me to "rock" when it comes to mincing onions & herbs. I need to sharpen it fairly often, though. I have an 8" Mizuno that's super-sharp (great for tomatoes and precise onion-dicing), but it's a bit scary (it sent me to Urgent Care twice).
0 -
Good news that DS made it safely to CO, SpecialK. I like the image of a vintage mixer and Joy of Cooking on the counter. There was a time when I referred to Joy of Cooking frequently.
No inspiration on dinner menu.
0 -
cooked up a big package of hamburger last night, used half of it for dinner last night and tonight I’ll use the other portion for chili.
0 -
Beaverintx, DH’s recipe for you, enjoy.
BRUSSELS SPROUTS
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1 - 1.5 pound Brussels sprouts
1 medium onion
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste.
Heat oil in large skillet.
Slice Brussels sprouts in half, and fry on medium heat, flat side only, do not turn or stir, until very brown on bottom. (Almost charred)
Add diced or sliced onion, cream, and minced garlic, stir everything around to mix well, add salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and continue to simmer with lid on, until tender, and cream thickens. Add Parmesan at the end.
I often like to include sliced mushrooms at the point with the onions and cream. Crumbled bacon is good too.
This is just a base recipe.
As with any recipe, all ingredients are adjustable to your liking.
0 -
Mae- that sounds delicious. Thanks for posting. I think I'd add mushrooms too.
0 -
Due to the extended stay of our thanksgiving guests, we had no turkey leftovers by day two. So DH cooked another turkey today. It’s delicious and will provide the proper amount of leftovers, soup and turkey ala king.
0 -
Back to cook books.... It's interesting to read what we used all these years. Seems like several of you reached for Joy of Cooking.
My Mother used primarily Better Homes & Garden's New Cookbook. I have her book - published in 1953. She's written so many shared recipes & notes on all the pages it's hard to read. Index is missing and she also stuck printed recipes all through it. She gave me the edition printed in 1964 when I married in 1966. That has been my go to cookbook all these years.
I received a Joy of Cooking in 1965 from the Mother of a young man who hoped I'd marry her son. That didn't happen. For one reason or another, this has always been the 2nd book I consulted - not the first. Probably not because of the son, but because I reached for what had been familiar growing up.
0 -
My Joy of Cooking was used so often it was beginning to fall apart...but then I got adventurous enough to "wing it," as well as loosely following online recipes. Decades of learning what various ingredients taste like and how they behave can hone a cook's instinct. (That and actually--as Julia Child gleefully declared even before becoming a chef--liking (actually, loving) to eat. My FIL used to chide me for "living to eat" instead of "eating to live;" as a (mostly) low-carb eater (I seem to be on temporary furlough), I've struck a happy medium. (And happy to still be wearing a size Medium).
Will eat the last of the leftover Shrimp Kow, as well as the diced acorn squash & cauliflower risotto (more truffles, of course). I have noticed that actual truffles do taste & smell far subtler than even the authentic (no chemical "essence") oils & salts---but at that price, once every 5 years (except when offered once again in a restaurant once the pandemic is under control) is often enough. Might, however, order a Cantonese BBQ duck from Sun Wah, which has finally started delivering through GrubHub. Vegetables in broth, too. (Soup--even low-calorie--is comfort food). I sooo want chow fun or lo mein...but...must...be...strong. (Especially since I finished off the remaining 1/3 slices of chocolate cream & passionfruit meringue pie last night).
0
