So...whats for dinner?
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Chi, how are you doing?
MIL gifted Sharon and I an air fryer for Christmas. We didn't think we would use it but we have ended up using it 3-4 times a week. We do not have a convection oven, so maybe that's some of why it gets used so much. It does take up a lot of counter space, which I don't like because I tend to spread out when I cook. Sharon seems to be a lot more space efficient when cooking, so it doesn't bother her as much. :-)
As for the "instant pot", we use either a dutch oven (my avatar) or a pressure cooker.
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Appreciate the feedback, all. Eric, your comment on spreading out in the kitchen made me smile. Although I tend to like spreading out on the counter, it reminded me of office politics and how women sit vs. how men sit...they always spread out to take the most amount of space
.I guess before I buy anything, I'll try the convection. I do have a pressure cooker that is stove top and induction usable (we have induction cooktop here) so I best get busy.
Sandy, please update us on how you are doing!
I'm making a tuna melt with raclette cheese on Naan bread. Also going to do something with cauliflower for a side but not sure how I'll prep it. If anyone has a great cauli recipe, feel free to share.
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I have an instant pot as well as the air fryer lid which I got before we bought our stove. The air fryer lid works great and saves some real estate if you already have the IP but since our new stove has an air fryer function I no longer use the lid. We use the oven air fryer often. DH is particularly fond of it (even for things he shouldn’t use it for.) Last night we used it for roasted carrots - wonderful.
Last nights dinner, in addition to the carrots, was most of the leftover roast pork with wide noodles. The small remaining bit of pork was used for lunch in bbqd pork sandwiches.
We have 4 inches of snow and counting. Our window feeder is packed with birds of all kinds. The bluebirds are out in force for mealworms. Yum 🤤
Hope Sandy is doing ok. It’s not like her not to post.
Tonight is lamb shanks and white beans. DH is less than enthusiastic because he thinks he doesn’t like lamb but he always likes it when I fix it so there’s that. To his credit he never complains. He is a wise man.
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I have no instant pot and no airfryer - I am seriously behind on the latest kitchen gizmos. I don't even use my slow cooker very much, I really should get it together, lol!
chisandy - we are worried about you - hope you're hanging in there.
wally - I am a big fan of oven roasting vegetables - try doing your cauliflower in decent sized florets, toss with salt, pepper, olive oil on a sheet pan. Roast for about half an hour, depending on floret size, at 350 F. When the cauliflower is done you can eat it as is, or sprinkle cheese of choice on and return to the oven until it just melts. Easy and yummy.
auntie - your DH is a wise man, indeed! When mine thinks he doesn't like something he says it is "interesting" because he won't come right out and say he doesn't like it. He will occasionally say he "doesn't prefer" it, and I am always what the heck does that even mean? His only outright refusal is raw tomatoes - otherwise he is pretty game to try whatever I give him.
minus - you had asked me if DH is eating the anti-inflammatory diet also - he is. One of the reasons we embarked on this again (he also did it the first time and lost weight then as well) is because his onc endocrinologist suggested that Hashimoto's patients do better without gluten. He has also lost about 10 lbs., and is very happy that his pants are more comfortable! So far we are both happy with eating this way and we both feel better, so it is easy to commit to staying the course.
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I'm starting to get the oranges off of the tree. So far I'm at 90 pounds and, even wearing a long sleeve shirt, my arms look like I've been teasing a VERY angry cat.
One of the jam folks dad is 90 and *LOVES* orange juice, so they'll be over to help get the oranges and take some of the orange juice. This reminds me of my dad when he was that age.... orange juice made his world go around! He would go through a gallon of juice a week.
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Tonight is a Hungryroot Winter veggie/chickpea curry bowl. It’s a tasty meatless option, although the curry is a little spicy for me.
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Eric - the oranges are a monumental job. Will you turn them all into juice? My Dad in his 90s drank OJ every day too.
Today's meal was guacamole with rosemary crackers, a piece of ginger bread - warmed & topped with whipped cream, and the last of a wedge of Gouda cheese.
Didn't make a north run today so the Lukes lobster will have to wait. Considering supply chain shortages - I went to a large Kroger store today with only 8 items on my list. Just standard things like Mayo. They were out of everything except one item - tonic water. On the other hand - 4 items on the list for the liquor store and they had all four. So I commiserated with myself by heading to a different Indie bookstore and spent $100 off their used book shelves. What with the booze & the books - I can make it through the freezes tomorrow & Friday it if we loose power again.
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I don’t check this thread very often, but I stopped by to share some tidbits. I’ve been making quinoa more than rice lately. I make a large pot and then freeze it in 1-2 cup portions for easier dinners. I add stuff to fill out the meal.
I found two really yummy “adds” this week. I rough cubed a large container of Costco mushrooms, put them on a tin foil covered baking sheet, and added a quarter cup of balsamic vinegar and a few splashes of olive oil. I roasted them in a hot oven (425 for US ovens)for about 30 minutes and then tossed them in the quinoa. I had some leftover chicken breasts as well, but my DH said we didn’t need that because the mushrooms and quinoa were so good. I added a sprinkle of Parmesan and parsley to finish the dish.
Tonight I mixed lentils, quinoa, sun-dried tomatoes, scallions and fresh parsley with a few crumbles of blue cheese on top. I’m looking forward to leftovers for lunch.
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I'd guess 90% will get turned into juice. The tree has been producing around 650 pounds of oranges, so just that 10% is still a lot of oranges.
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cyathea - thanks for your post & your ideas. It's a lot like the way I eat. I'll look for the Costco mushrooms.
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Cyathea, I have leftover cooked red quinoa in the refrigerator. I've been trying to introduce quinoa into our menus. Your suggestions may inspire me. So far I prefer brown rice. Recently I've been going through my collection of cook books and I'm keeping one devoted to quinoa recipes. I had forgotten about it.
Last night's salmon fillets cooked in a 425 degree oven were very good. The topping is plain Greek yogurt, mustard and lots of chopped fresh dill. Veggie was steamed asparagus and salad was our "usual" tossed romaine.
Tonight will be split pea soup and salad.
It's a yucky day with rain. I have a dentist appointment at 10 am. It's a new dentist.
Nance, that sounds like quite a talented oven! Also I had not heard about an air fryer lid for the Instant Pot.
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I've found the quinoa tastes bland, but like tofu, the secret is in the "what it's cooked in/with". Sharon and I are still experimenting. We like spicy, so some Serrano peppers are always part of the mix.
It's sunny but cold enough that I need to put on shoes to comfortably go outside and I can hear/see all the "world's tiniest violins" playing their sad song for me. As I've said earlier, you can tell me all about the weather when I walk outside at 8pm and it's still 110F/45C. :-)
It looks like 2 boxes of oranges makes a bit more than 12 gallons of orange juice and we, so far, have just picked the oranges we can reach from the ground. Looking at it today, I'm guessing we are not even 20% done with the picking.
I managed to clear more freezer space, so I'm going on "The great jar hunt" to get more 1/2 gallon mason jars. MIlL said that while we're moving, we can put the freezer at her house....as long as she can drink some of the orange juice. :-) So, we won't have to wonder what to do with all the juice as we move.
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Dinner was made up of a little leftover Rao's, and I added fresh mushrooms, sour cream & Vodka for a really smooth 'rosa' sauce. Served over Garofalo Italian Organic Gemelli. Side was 1/2 a bag of 'garden salad' with HEB ranch dressing. I'm sure I'll warm up another piece of the gingerbread.
Yesterday was 73. High early this morning was 53. Current temperature at 5pm was 33. Nothing like some variation.
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I'm doing fine--just lost a very long post, dunno how. More later.
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Tonight was chicken fajita tacos with an avocado cream sauce. It came with lots of veggies, so I’ll use the rest in an omelette.
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Funny how busy one can be while (technically) sick! Except for my visit last Sat. 1/29 to Immediate Care for my PCR test & then to pick up Paxlovid, and then a return visit Tues. 2/1 to have my cat bite checked out and get a tetanus shot, I was basically quarantined since Sun. 1/23 (my birthday) when Bob rapid-tested positive. Couldn't let my housekeeper come in, postponed the exterminator & manicure; and was basically a cat-servant, short-order cook for Bob, and an endless cycle of trying to stay ahead of dishes, messes, etc. Rapid-tested negative every other day no matter how tired I felt. And just as Bob was feeling better I began to get feverish and post-nasal-drippy. But the usual paperwork, bills, gathering tax stuff, etc, don't stand still for a virus. Of course, I felt just mildly crummy enough to have to nap on & off all day. Add to that dealing with arranging for snow management, grocery & pharma shopping, etc., and that left little time for going online. Not just that--Bob went back to work for exactly one day before we got snowed in again. He actually took CTA (three different trains) to get to work at Union Health; half his support staff was stuck at home, unable to get out of their alleys and (unlike us) not within slogging-through-the-snow-distance to public transit.
So back on track now. Housekeeper finally dug her car out and her neighbors plowed out the alley, so she's coming in tomorrow for the first time since 1/21. We'll be tag-teaming laundry and washing salt-stains off the floors. And she will be cleaning the litterboxes, as I could just barely keep up with scooping before the lid of my Litter Genie broke off. She admonished me not to mess with laundry or emptying & washing the litterboxes, as she has a system (of which I am in awe).
Dinner was leftover chow fun & shrimp Kow Bob brought home from the so-so pan-Asian place around the corner.
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I bought a purple sweet potato and decided to pan fry some diced onion, the potato and dump in anything else I had leftover, into a frittata.
Leftovers tomorrow.
I'm trying to find 30 different foods to eat in a week; a sort of challenge to keep things more interesting. It's like playing scrabble in the kitchen, LOL. I doubt I will be hugely successful but it will keep me interested in grocery shopping when shelves are bare.
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Oh, and to explain the cat bite: Happy has a sixth sense for when I'm sad or not feeling well, and so gives extra snuggles & face cuddles. Unfortunately, he can also get overstimulated, or redirect his aggression when he sees Heidi about to vie for my attention. Normally, when I admonish him "don't bite Mama, keep your teeth to yourself" he listens. Over the past four years the only three times he's nipped my face was when I forgot to invoke that mantra--and Monday was no exception. I knew I'd need an antibiotic, so I tried calling my PCP after hours--only to reach NorthShore Health's central number and work my way through voicemail menus. So I called my nearest NorthShore Immediate Care center...only to find they all have the same central phone number. After holding forever till I reached phone triage, they put me on hold again for the on-call provider--telling me if I didn't get a call w/in 20 minutes to try again. So after 30 minutes I tried again...and you guessed it, back to square one. Finally the NP called me back and told me though I was doing everything right with wound care (not my first rodeo), I would need an antibiotic but the amoxicillin I had on hand wouldn't cut it, and I'd need Augmentin. I knew if she called in a 'script I'd have to wait till morning--but Bob was home watching basketball. So he wrote the Rx and ran it over to Walgreen's with only 5 minutes to spare before the pharmacy closed. The NP told me that regardless of COVID I should be seen in the morning. So I popped one Augmentin, cleaned & bandaged the (tiny) wounds, went to bed; and repeated the drill in the morning before heading to the clinic. The NP confirmed I was doing everything right but could ditch the Band-Aids, and she gave me a tetanus shot. That evening came the inevitable side effect of the Augmentin--I'll spare you the "organ recital" because it'd be TMI. Needless to say, that stuff also took quite a bit of my time for the next couple of days before my PCP messaged me that it was safe to stop the Augmentin.
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The split pea soup was/is delicious. And managed to get cooked without any burning on the bottom. I added finely diced onion, carrot and celery and a package of ham hock slices from the freezer, s & p. We had a large bowl of soup and a tossed romaine salad for dinner last night. Now there is leftover soup for another meal and/or lunch food.
Tonight will probably be leftover linguine/Raos/Italian sausage dish made into a sort of spaghetti pie. Meanwhile that large container of red quinoa sits there challenging me.
It's an ugly day, cold and windy, but no ice or snow or dangerous driving conditions so I can go to the gym for an 11:30 exercise class.
Wally cat, I look forward to reports on those 30 new foods!
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Holy crap, Sandy. What a ride. And a belated Happy Birthday. I LOL'd on the 'organ recital'...OMG...too funny and sorry you had to deal with it. But see how fortunate to have "doc connections?" SO happy you were able to manage it all and with covid. My neighbor in Missouri had a stray cat bite her through her thumb nail...twice (getting it into a cage to have her fixed while caring for the already born kittens). I encouraged her to go to an urgent care, but she's an old farm gal and wouldn't think of it. Surprisingly, peroxide and rinsing and she never had an issue. Scary though.
30 different foods...it may not all be new! Hard to keep variety when I like to make repeat meals...so it is just a mental challenge.
As mentioned, leftovers tonight (I added the last of the marinara sauce into the eggs and cheese and it actually turned out quite tasty). I may buy the purple sweet potatoes again. Blindly purple! And yummy.
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Yes Wally, I too am looking forward to your 30 new foods (or 20). I bought purple mini-boiling potatoes once. They colored everything. Purple sponge & dishwater.
Same kind of day here Carole - but still only 28 at 11am and a thin coating of ice on my back patio.
Eric - for my initial adventure into cooking Quinoa, I bought the NorQuin Golden Quinoa with lemon pepper - boil in bag. It was easy & pretty good - both the first meal & leftovers. Found it at Costco. Tofu just leaves me cold.
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I have quinoa sitting in a plastic tub on the counter, taunting me. I should figure something out.
I love, love, love tofu. Always have; even before I knew how "healthy" it was. I suspect some people are offended by the texture but to me, it is like custard. Even the firm, when made right, has good texture (I've oven fried it so it tastes like croutons!). I know many people find mushrooms unpleasant because of texture.
Stay safe in this crazy weather. I swear, anytime I put an order in for something, depending on which part of the country it is coming from...there's a storm, therefore, a delay. Pollen here is already reminding me I am looking forward to October. I mowed the lawn yesterday and suspect that did not help allergies.
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I have found that soft "silken" tofu plus maple syrup tastes just like the maple-flavored Junket rennet custard that was a childhood comfort-food treat.
No idea what I'll cook tonight--will depend on what Bob wants.
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Sharon makes taco filling out of oven fried tofu. There are several spices in it, but I'm not sure which ones or amounts. I can find out. The flavor and texture are just like beef filling for tacos.
I made the northern honey corn bread and did some additional modifications the 2nd time around. There was none left after last night's jam session, so I guess it was "good". I added a bit more honey (everyone but me is a Yankee) and a bit more flour. I think it's now "good as is", so I typed it up and put it into the red notebook.
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Tonight is Basil pesto veggies with cauliflower gnocchi. The recipe veggies were broccoli and mushrooms but I added roasted carrots and garlic and gave DH all the shrooms (bleh, yuk). This one is really good.
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Illimae, even your carrots look drool-worthy!
I had to google Junket rennet....vanilla pudding?
I added kale chips as a side dish for myself. DH won't touch it, silly boy.
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Boy, Minus, temp variety you would never ask for, eh?! Our weather has really deteriorated after a snowstorm last weekend that was voluminous, but pleasantly fluffy. Today we are “sleeted in”, and will remain hunkered down inside until the temps warm a bit and the street are safely melted for driving.
All this wintry weather motivated me to make some heavy duty food. So twice this week we ate my fave kale/turkey meatballs with the quick tomato sauce in which they get cooked. When I don’t feel like making that sauce I cook them in a Rao’s jarred sauce.
I do think it may well have been Susan who first talked about Rao’s. And at that point it was about $10 a jar in my local supermarkets. The comment about “the younger generation” expanding the marketing of their Rao’s brand makes so much sense, since it eventually became available in so many more stores and the price dropped a lot. We especially loved their puttanesca sauce (which we use to cook with cod and sautéed veggies) and serve over orzo or bowtie pasta. That Rao’s variety seems to have disappeared, and after a long search, we discovered that Wegman’s carries a store brand puttanesca sauce which we now use for that favorite meal…after adding some extra anchovy paste to it. I’d tried to score some highly recommended brands from Amazon, and not one order made it to my door! So I’ll either make my own or use Wegman’s for our cod/veggiedish
Last night (while still 47 degrees!) we had a romaine salad with shrimp and honey mustard dressing. Even better was a baguette made by a French woman who has started a small French bakery in her home. DH discovered this wonderful resource and already ordered a number of pastries for Valentine’s weekend. Her baguettes are great. Pix of that dinner as well as tonight’s leftovers of the healthful turkey meatballs and pasta laden with mozzarella are below:
Since DH ventured out to the store before the sleet storm, and picked up chicken breasts, I’ll be cooking them this weekend in some form. He also picked up a huge “bundle” of kale, so a lot of that landed in our salad tonight.
Wallycat, I’ll be interested to see what new foods you try this year! And how you enjoy them!
I cook minus an air fryer, hardly use my slow cooker, and still have not opened an instant pot I bought two or more years ago. I’m also a stovetop cook, Carole.
Glad to hear you are recovered, Sandy.
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Wallycat, I grew up eating Junket rennet custard…loved it’s taste and interesting light texture. I did wonder once grown up if it was made with gelatinous ingredients that I would rather avoid. But never bothered to research it…just didn’t see it at stores here. Now I should check that out! ;
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This is the first time I've known of Junket rennet custard. I will have to Google it.
Yesterday, while reviewing the cookbook collection, I spent part of the afternoon reading Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything The Basics. It still has the receipt used as a bookmark. It's a beautiful book with many photos and much information that would be a great present to someone learning to cook. I will keep it. I got some ideas for dishes to make. One is zucchini fritters.
Lacey, I used to make turkey/spinach meatballs but stopped at some point for whatever unknown reason. The Raos Puttanesca is never available here either.
Dinner tonight to be decided.
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