So...whats for dinner?
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eric - fun food is fun, lol! The beaks are a piece of shredded carrot and the eyes are black olive - I used a skinny drinking straw on a black olive half and just pinched the end to dislodge the olive disk. The original instruction was to use peppercorns but I felt that would not end well if someone ate them! Just cut a small part of the egg bottom off so they sit flat. The instructions also had shredded carrot pieces for feet but that was too much hassle.
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A lot of great sounding/looking Easter meals!
We sometimes do Easter brunch with friends but the main group were out of town this year. I was recently going through old magazines before recycling them for recipes and garden ideas, and found several worth saving from Sunset. There was a whole Jamaican menu, so my husband got some charcoal and we did a spatchcocked jerk chicken on the Weber. I made pan fried plantains for the first time ever. (Have enjoyed them in restaurants but never attempted to cook them at home.) And adapted the recipe for "peas and rice" for my Instant Pot so that I could use the dried red beans I had in the pantry. Everything came out great, which is good since we have plenty of leftovers!
Tonight we're having miso marinated black cod with Asian cucumber salad and rice.
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Tonight was leftover roast chicken (the "airline breast" half), mashed potatoes and peas--the leftovers from Thurs. night's dinner out. Probably going to Greektown tomorrow for dinner after Bob's finished with his shift at Union Health Care. (Most likely Santorini or Pegasus). Still Passover, so no bread, pastitsio or baklava (Greek Jews do eat rice during Passover, though).
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Tonight I made a cauliflower, onion, hot pepper, garlic, shrimp and pasta dish. My mouth is still "humming" as the hot pepper was JUST RIGHT.
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Tonight is leftovers from Easter dinner
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Eric - I might not do quite as many hot peppers, but I'd like to hear more about your concoction w/cauliflower/shrimp/pasta.
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I cooked most of a box of pasta shells...the pound box was probably 2/3 full and was what was left over from another recipe. When it was done and drained, I added a tablespoon of olive oil and tossed the pasta around.
I cooked a 1/2 pound (more or less...again it was leftovers from some other recipe) of shrimp.
I broke a cauliflower head into its small pieces (florets??) and steamed it until it was tender.
I diced a large onion and cooked that in olive oil in my large cast iron skillet until the onion was soft. I then added a minced clove of garlic and a couple of teaspoons of crushed dried Serrano peppers (from my pepper plant in the back yard). I added to the skillet a couple of tablespoons of water and the cauliflower and cooked it for a few more minutes..so the pepper "heat" would be more evenly distributed. . While this was cooking, I was tasting it and adding salt until I liked it.
I then added the onion-garlic-cauliflower mixture to the pasta, along with the shrimp, tossed it a bit and served it.
This was an experiment that combined several recipes . One recipe was angel hair pasta with shrimp, another was pasta shells and broccoli, another was rice, shrimp and pepper, and yet another used small elbow macaroni with cauliflower and a tomato sauce. All the recipes were "busy", with every stove spot being used at the same time--this one was too. So, I got everything ready, the skillets hot and the water boiling, before I started cooking.
With everything ready to go, I got things pretty well timed so that it all was finished at about the same time and it was still hot when I served it.
Cooking times are about 10 minutes for the pasta, 5 minutes for the shrimp, 5 minutes for the onion, 3-4 minutes for steaming the cauliflower, plus a couple more minutes with the onion cooking with the cauliflower.
To my surprise, it turned out pretty well the first time. I'm not sure what I'd change, if anything, the next time i make it.
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Lacey, I cooked the breaded eggplant slices in the air fryer last night for a side dish. The result was tasty but much drier than the breaded eggplant cooked in oil. Dh and I agreed that a good marinara as a dipping sauce would be good. This preparation would definitely work well for making an eggplant parmesan.
Tonight I will cook the second eggplant, spread a little Rao's marinara on top of the slices, spinkled with mozzarella cheese, and melt the cheese. The 2nd step will not be in the fryer but probably in the toaster oven.
The meat last night was roasted pork tenderloin, marinated in a mixture of olive oil, chopped rosemary, minced garlic, salt, and onion power. The tenderloin was cooked perfectly, moist and pink on the inside. Now how do I incorporate the leftover half into another meal without ending up with tough pork? Any ideas?
On Monday night I over cooked breaded veal cutlets in the air fryer. I seldom buy veal and meant to replicate a delicious paneed veal dish I had in a restaurant, but it was served with a butter sauce and I wanted to cut some fat and calories, now that I've rejoined WW and am back "on the wagon" and motivated to drop some lbs.
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carole - I think this could work - cut slices of your leftover tenderloin. Put some olive oil in a skillet and briefly sauté your pork medallions, just for a moment on each side. Remove from the pan, and add 1/3 c. broth or stock and 1/3 c. mild vinegar to the pan. Scrape up any brown bits and reduce by half, about 5 mins. Lower the heat and stir in some dried tarragon, or herb of choice, a couple of teaspoons of Dijon mustard or other grainy mustard that you like, and 1/4 c. cream. Reduce again by half until thickened, add the pork slices back and re-heat them briefly, or if you have kept the pork warm just pour the sauce over. Because you only need a little stock for this recipe I usually make pilaf with rice and broken angel hair pasta and use the rest of the box of stock for that, and have a green vegetable or salad. Another thing I do, as I often have leftover pork tenderloin, is to do a stir fry of whatever vegetables I have on hand, and julienne the pork and add when the vegetables are almost done, cook just long enough to heat it through, add a bottled sauce like sweet Thai chile or Hoisin, and serve over rice noodles or brown rice.
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Great ideas, SpecialK. Thanks for sharing them.
The eggplant dish is prepped and ready to finish in the oven at dinner time. I bought a black drum fillet (fish!) at the Winn Dixie today. Also a package of chicken breast fillets and another package of boneless skinless chicken thighs. I'll let dh decide between chicken and fish. Salad will be baby spinach with additions.
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Path of least resistance tonight: seared grass-fed ribeye, plus kosher-for-Passover broccoli kugel and butternut squash souffle. And (sigh) more matzo.
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Last night was leftover jerk chicken, fried plantains and rice and peas.
We'd roasted an eggplant on the grill when we made the chicken on Sunday. So I just made the eggplant spread from Joshua McFadden's "Six Seasons" cookbook and will be making an adaptation of the Carta di Musica with Roasted Eggplant Spread, Herbs, and Ricotta Salad https://www.joshuamcfadden.com/recipes/ (it's the photo on the top right - pretty no?) for dinner tonight. I'm just going to split and toast pita bread brushed with a bit of olive oil to use as the cracker base. My girlfriend gave me this cookbook for Xmas and it's given me quite a few new ideas for different things to do with vegetables. (Recipes are vegetable-centric, but not completely vegetarian, which I like.)
My husband bought queso anejo the other day that I will sub for the ricotta salata. I will make a little mezze plate of olives, dolmas and whatever else I can round up to have on the side.
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DH cooked a chicken on the rotisserie and I cut and steamed broccoli and cauliflower. The juices from the chicken were extra special good!
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Brown Tepary Beans.
And I thought bananas had a a lot of potassium per serving!
They have a vague nut like flavor. I followed the package suggestion and used onion, garlic, some of my hot peppers and cumin when I cooked the beans.
I'm "hooked". These were grown at Ramona Farms, just south of Phoenix and are available online. At $5.40 a pound, they aren't cheap though.
My doctor encourages folks to modify their diet if it is likely that it would help "whatever ails them". She says that the few that actually follow through do benefit.
Even if there are no medical benefits, the new flavors that Sharon and I are finding are worth it.
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Ai-eeeee---410 cal. per half-cup with nothing added?
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I'm guessing it's a dry 1/2 cup...but beans do not expand like happens with rice.
I was in a hurry this morning--going kayaking--and I ate a 1/2 cup of beans around 8am. It's 3pm and I'm just now starting to get hungry.......so it "lasts" a long time......
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Tonight is the black drum fillet lightly breaded in fish fry mixture and sautéed in a little olive oil and ghee (clarified butter) I bought a jar of ghee today when I stopped off at a Rouse's supermarket on the way home to buy scallops, which will also be sautéed with no breading. Also bought a lb of lump crab meat for crab cakes tomorrow night. I may use a small amount of the crab meat as topping for the fish.
Side is zucchini cooked in a small amount of Rao sauce and pepper flakes and fresh garlic. Last minute sprinkling of romano.
Maybe a side salad.
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Bob & I are walking to a wine tasting with a buffet, so will report back
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Everyone's food is more exciting than mine: Cobb salad with bacon, avocado, hard boiled egg, blue cheese, etc., and a baguette half.
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The scallops last night were especially good. The black drum was ok.
This afternoon I watched a number of UTube videos of chefs making crab cakes. Without exception they all start off with whisking an egg and adding mayo and mustard and assorted seasonings and herbs. Old Bay is a big favorite. Some used bread crumbs or cracker crumbs and some did not. My mixture ended up pretty wet so I did add 1/4 cup of wheat cracker crumbs.
I used a handful of chives and some Italian parsley from my herb garden. One egg, 4 T of Hellman's Light mayo, a tsp of Dijon mustard, dash of hot sauce, pinch of cayenne, 1/2 tsp salt, squeeze of fresh lemon and the cracker crumbs. Last ingredient to be added was the 1 lb. lump blue crab. The bowl of mixture is in the refrigerator. Not sure how many cakes I will make or whether I will use the remaining cracker crumb for breading the outside. I'll preheat the air fryer to 400 degrees and cook the crab cakes 4 min. on each side.
Not sure about a sauce. Have a couple of good bottled aioli's. I will probably just squeeze some fresh lemon juice but dh has never met a food that doesn't require a condiment.
Sides will be spinach salad and steamed asparagus.
Gorgeous day today. I played golf with three women golfing friends.
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Carole - Probably too late now, but I make my version of a remoulade sauce to go with crab cakes. Mayo, ketchup, dill pickle relish, lemon juice, drops of Tabasco, all to taste - Whisk it up & refrigerate to let flavors meld together. We are having crab cakes tomorrow or Sunday. A month from now, will be in Charleston, SC area & cannot wait to have a week of yummy seafood.
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My remoulade: mayo (yeah, I cheat and use Hellmann's), Creole mustard, jarred grated white horseradish, cayenne, paprika and hot sauce to taste (I really like Panola, which was tough to find outside LA before the company went online).
Last night's buffet at the wine tasting was spinach/gorgonzola/cranberry/walnut salad, prosciutto-wrapped asparagus, bruschetta, various cheeses & charcuterie, chorizo-stuffed potato skins, rigatoni with sausage & peppers, St. Louis "toasted" (actually fried) ravioli with marinara, lemon chicken breast, haricots verts and lemon curd petits fours.
Tonight was the Bar Show cast party & "Rookie Show" (a parody of the Bar Show--which is of course itself a parody--put on by cast members who've been in the show <3yrs.) at Maggiano's Little Italy downtown. The Rookie Show has become much, much edgier than when I was a rookie 16 yrs ago--and consequently, much funnier. The Bar Show's talent level has risen exponentially. When first conceived >90 yrs ago, it was all-men, few of whom could sing or dance, and held in the Hilton's ballroom as dinner theater for two weeks--open bar all evening, so the cast & band got loopier as the evening went on. (When I auditioned in 2002, you made at least the chorus if you could match pitches and carry a tune. Now you have to sight-read and have a voice capable of soloing--even if you are strictly in ensemble numbers. Half the current cast members were music, theater, or musical theater majors before law school--and some have professional experience, including opera, ballet and modern dance. And we're in a real theater, for four performances). Dinner was served family-style: Caesar & chopped salads, fried calamari, four-cheese ravioli Alfredo, mostaccioli & meatballs, chicken Parmigiana, grilled salmon with spinach, tiramisu & NY-style cheesecake with blueberry sauce. (About wine--I take the fifth...but at least I didn't drink a fifth).
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The crab cakes were the best I've ever made and I was very pleased with cooking them in the air fryer versus sautéing in butter and oil. A remoulade sauce would have made dh happy. He didn't especially like either aioli.
Today he will be attending a woodworkers' guild barbecue. I am invited, too, but will pass. He is just as happy going solo and I don't have much in common with the wives. Plus (most important) do not want to eat heavy food. So tonight I'll do something with the leftover pork tenderloin, maybe warm it up in a lemony chicken broth sauce thickened with a little corn starch.
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Chicken pot pie
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Going to see Leisure Seekers with Helen Miren & Donald Sutherland this afternoon. I hope my friend will decide that she does want to stop for Prime Rib French dip after the movie. Otherwise it will be left overs.
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minus - ahhh, French Dip - one of my absolute faves. I have lately been making somewhat of a crockpot version with a roast and onion soup with additional beef broth. I use Cuban bread - cuz I'm in Tampa - I warm the bread in the oven and spread it with a mayo and horseradish combo first, then use the leftover and reduced soup as the au jus.
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Special - we didn't make it for French Dip today, but yours sounds delicious. I recently bought a mini-crock pot. My old Rival was way to big for one and it did not have a 'warm' setting. What type of roast do you use? I'm sure I'll have to cut one in half, but I'm going to try it. Do you use Campbellsl soup? Or Liptons? How far up the side does the liquid come?
The acting was wonderful in The Leisure Seeker and there were funny moments, but the subject was difficult to watch. Probably more difficult than Still Alice. But there was so much love between these old people at the end of the road.
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minus - I use a rump roast, but you could also use a chuck roast or any long cooking type. Every time I read or write rump roast I laugh, I'm very juvenile, lol! I use canned French onion soup and either beef consommé or stock. The recipe calls for a 3-4 lb roast, 2 10.5oz cans of French onion soup and 1 can (same size) of consommé. You can cook it on low for 8 hrs or half that time on high. Depending on how you like the au jus you can use it the way it is from the crock pot, or remove some and reduce it on the stove. If you cooked the roast on low, you could also remove it, turn the crock pot to high and leave the lid off and I think it would reduc to some degree. The yield is 8 servings, so half that much maybe 4
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When I hear rump roast, I remember getting into a VW Bug with black plastic seats....It was early afternoon in June in the California desert and.I had been at swim practice. I forgot to put the towel down on the seat before I sat down.
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Thanks Special.
Eric - LOL. I just finished reading an article in the National Parks magazine about baking cookies on the dashboard of the ranger's car in Death Valley.
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