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Last week was- more wonton soup, chipotle and beef meatballs over black beans, rice and spinach which I baked together and put some cheese and pickled jalapenos on it, then made rice bowls topped with lettuce, radish and some salsa.  Sunday night was spaghetti al bianco with chicken instead of beef and garlic bread.  I am getting ready to start a more strict diet for about a month, I am slowly easing into it now, so it doesn't seem so black and white, even more veggies, less calories overall, some shakes again, less sugar and caffeine.  Maybe a fast here and there.

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On March 26, 2017 at 8:58 PM, Pat said:

Crostini with arugula-toasted walnut-Parmesan-honey pesto drizzled with honey
Orecchiette with gruyere, butter, and jalapeños

Last night, I mixed this up a bit, adding some of the pesto to the leftover pasta and reheating. It was delicious, better than the original.  I made mini avocado toasts with more of the bread I had pre-toasted for crostini.

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Ricotta and basil stuffed shells baked with leftover meatballs (from the freezer) in marinara sauce and topped with shredded basil, mozzarella, and Parmesan.  Despite being vacuum-sealed, the meatballs tasted a little bit of the freezer.  I've still got a few more packs of them (froze them 6 - 8 per bag) so had better eat them sooner rather than later.

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A while back when I was at Yes, I decided to buy some  D'Artagnan Lamb Merguez Sausages.  I have no idea why I picked them up, but they weren't all that expensive relative to the other sausages and I love lamb. There are 5 small sausages to a pack and I figured I could eat them one at a time.  Instead, tonight I grilled them on a grill pan and then braised with some bacon, onion, and red pepper, with white wine and chicken broth.  I added a small amount of cannellini beans I had soaked and cooked yesterday for the last part of the braise. It made for a nice small meal (I only ate one sausage), along with a cucumber salad.

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Sheet Tray chicken with Roasted Mushrooms, fingerling potatoes and kale.  Roasted at 475 after rub of porcini powder, salt and cayenne.  Kale added after 30 minutes.  Really liked how good this was as the mushrooms absorbed and got happy with chicken juices. 

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Last night was a sheet pan meal of chicken leg quarters with whole shallots and sweet potato wedges. The sauce poured over was spiced honey/soy/balsamic/red wine. This is the second recipe I've made fairly recently that called for roasting a bunch of whole shallots with everything else. They are soooo good.  I'm starting to get sick of sweet potatoes after trying to get through a stash of them, but the chicken and shallots were good.  There were also pitted dates thrown in near the end that were tasty too.  I served this over white rice.

While I was waiting for this to finish cooking, I ate part of spicy cheddar/thyme/mustard turnover from Souk.  I love those.  Finished it for breakfast this morning.

 

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52 minutes ago, Pat said:

Leftover chicken cutlet, gravy, and mashed potato casserole

What did you do *after* you got out of the nursing home? :P

Oh, never mind - I see you made chicken the night before - did you bread the cutlets yourself? And from which cut(s)?

Any greens, or were they residing in the casserole?

This is the type of meal that could be *awesome* (like, Corduroy-awesome), or *awful* (like, college-awful).

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12 hours ago, DonRocks said:

What did you do *after* you got out of the nursing home? :P

Oh, never mind - I see you made chicken the night before - did you bread the cutlets yourself? And from which cut(s)?

Any greens, or were they residing in the casserole?

This is the type of meal that could be *awesome* (like, Corduroy-awesome), or *awful* (like, college-awful).

This was a very white meal. No greens. It was chicken I'd made several days before, from pounding down skinless, boneless chicken breasts and dredging them in flour. They were pan-fried in a mixture of butter and olive oil.  I made a couple of sandwiches from them, topped nachos with a little more, and served some over salad. This was the last one.  The mashed potato casserole had also been made several days before.  That was mashed red potatoes, milk, butter, sour cream, and cream cheese, topped with bread crumbs, more butter, and some grated Parmesan and then baked.

This wasn't either Corduroy-awesome or college-awful.  It was pretty good and made use of food I had on hand but was nothing spectacular.

 

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Went back to the NYTimes Cooking well last night and made the tasty Marinated Celery Salad with Chickpeas and Parmesan and Spaghetti with Sausage Alla Carbonara

Earlier this week: yogurt marinated leg of lamb from Cucina Urbana with a different chickpea salad. Also, cabbage, leek, and potato soup with lemon creme fraiche. 

3 hours ago, Pat said:

Last night was mushroom ravioli (the fresh, packaged store-bought kind--La Pasta) with sautéed cremini mushrooms in a sherry-butter-thyme sauce

@MichaelBDC and I have become fans of La Pasta ravioli, mainly because we are too lazy to make raviolis ourselves and it is better than the Buitoni that Safeway carries. We usually pair it with Marcella Hazan's very easy tomato sauce, but we'll have to try something similar to what you did to mix it up.

 

 

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IMG_3601.JPG.2d7ee82b5711d9ad00ead0a80f84804f.JPG

Roast chicken and vegetable salad, shallot vinaigrette

The salad is a little involved and looks are deceiving.

You will need leftover roast chicken, salad greens and an assortment of vegetables. We used green beans, potatoes, red onion, tomato and celery. The vegetables were each preppe
d separately.

You can use any kind of vegetable you have on hand. It's a great way to clean out your vegetable crisper.

Strip the leftover meat from your roast chicken carcass. Tear into bite-size pieces.

Trim the green beans, then either steam them or simmer them for 5 minutes in lightly salted water. If you simmered them in water, blanch them in ice water to preserve the color.

Dice the tomatoes and place in a bowl. Set aside.

Slice the celery thinly and place in a bowl. Set aside.

Steam the potatoes whole, then peel and cut into chunks.

Slice 1/2 red onion thinly and soak in ice water for 15 minutes, then drain. This will help eliminate any harsh "bite".

When you're ready to assemble the salad, combine the salad greens, chicken, green beans, tomatoes, celery, potatoes and red onion in a large salad bowl. Season with salt and black pepper, and sprinkle with 1 tbsp. each minced flat-leaf parsley and thyme. Add 3-4 tbsp. salad dressing (recipe follows), then toss to ensure that the salad ingredients are lightly coated. Serve at once.

Salad dressing:

1 shallot, finely minced
sea salt
1 tbsp. sherry vinegar
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tbsp. thyme leaves
1 tbsp. white wine vinegar or lemon juice
1 tbsp. sherry vinegar
a pinch of sugar
sea salt
black pepper
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Combine shallot, a pinch of salt and sherry vinegar in a small bowl. Macerate shallots for 5 minutes.

After the 5 minutes are up, grate some garlic with a microplane grater over the shallots (or alternatively, you could pound the garlic into a paste with a little salt in a mortar and pestle). Add the mustard, thyme, white wine vinegar or lemon juice, remaining 1 tbsp. sherry vinegar, sugar, salt and black pepper. Whisk in extra-virgin olive oil in a thin stream or until dressing becomes emulsified.

Use as desired. Keeps in your fridge for up to a month.

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I have been sick for about 10 days and am just coming out of the fog, so I made some homemade chicken won-ton soup multiple days with won-tons I made and froze for such emergencies and bok choy.  I also ate lots of frozen veggies warmed up in a skillet and chicken that I sous vided, anything easy, that was about it.  But over the weekend my Mom and I made homemade eggplant Parmesan which was very tasty with pasta, meatballs and bread.  I have some leftover fried eggplant, so last night I put it in the oven to crisp back up, topped with Parmesan cheese.  We ate it with green beans and leeks, and orzo pasta with pesto and peas.  

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Last night was stir-fry, a little heavier on ginger than I intended but good: Tofu, red pepper, spring onion, snow peas, leftover white rice, and a couple of beaten eggs tossed in at the end.  I used the excess marinade I'd thrown together for the tofu (tamari, ginger, garlic, Chinese rice wine, sesame oil) to season everything.

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Ramen with tofu, spring onion, and hard-boiled egg.  The ramen is Lotus millet and brown rice ramen (Costco), cooked in boxed 365 chicken broth. Once about done, tamari sauce went in, followed by sliced spring onion from Eastern Market, with leftover diced cooked extra firm tofu and sliced hard-boiled egg.

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This weekend MK was mostly working, so I didn't cook a lot.  I did make yakitori noodles (somewhat pre-cooked out of a package at the local Asian supermaket- they were great though, looking for them again), with ground beef, green peppers, onion, cabbage, pickled carrot and radish and yakitori sauce.  Banana Bread for dessert.

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Chili Paneer - First time making this Indo-Chinese dish, basically an Indian tomato sauce mixed with soy sauce, fried paneer and sauteed green pepper.  Excellent and instantly added to the rotation.

Kodava Mushroom Curry - This dish is a regular on my Indian food rotation.

Andhra-Style Sauteed Spinach - I had some spinach that needed using up so give it a shot.  Not bad, a pleasant side dish.

Chana Masala - Still struggling with this dish.  Flavor is solid, but I can't get the chickpeas to cook properly.  I soaked them overnight and then boiled them for almost an hour and they were cooked but not tender.  Work in progress!

 

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Tonight maybe one of the last meals in my kitchen here in Columbus.  Taking advantage of the beautiful warm weather, I am going to grill chicken tenders that have been marinating in yogurt and Tandori spices.  I am also making a vegetable curry with the addition of kidney beans, because that's what I have!

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I'm reheating an individual serving casserole I made of orecchiette and shredded short rib in tomato sauce with a ricotta/parm/egg layer and havarti and parm on top.  The pasta was well past it's best by date and everything else had been in the fridge quite a while.

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Modified steak ssam from the Momofuku cookbook. @MichaelBDC and I weren't up for eating the steak in lettuce wraps so we put the steak, ginger scallion sauce, and kimchi into a bowl of sushi rice for a steak ssam bowl. Not quite bibimbap, not quite ssam, but delicious nonetheless. 

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Over the weekend, Mom and I made a pot roast in crock pot, that turned out surprisingly well (I am not a crock pot person) using the McCormick pot roast spices and a cup of red wine with potatoes, celery and carrots.  Served with a salad with strawberries, sunflower seeds and Parmesan cheese. And good crusty bread.  We also made a chicken Caesar salad with homemade dressing and croutons.  

Sunday night was spicy Italian sausages sauteed and braised with garlic, shallot, kale, lima beans and asparagus.  Served with some nice crusty bread from the bakery in Wardensville.  Last night was ham, rice and quinoa mix made in stock, with roasted apple, carrots and celery with some fennel seed and oregano.

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Last night was salad (romaine, radishes, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, chickpeas, carrots, and homemade rye croutons); buttermilk-brined baked chicken drumsticiks; creamed spinach, and buttered orzo with parsley and carrots.

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Crockpot pulled pork tacos for dinner last night.  I rubbed the hunk of pork shoulder (about 2 1/2 lbs.) with the last of my homemade rub for pork that I made so long ago that I haven't known what's in it for quite some time.  Whatever sugar component that was in it required pretty vigorous crushing to get everything back to a granular consistency.  It went in the crockpot for 10+ hours with bay leaf, diced jalapeño, onion and some 3 Stars Peppercorn Saison. After it had cooked a while, I added a can of diced tomatoes and more beer.  

I served this with both flour and corn tortillas; canned pinto beans that I doused with some of the cooking liquid in the pot; chopped Napa cabbage;  sliced jalapeño; sliced radishes; guacamole; grated colby jack cheese; Trader Joe's salsa verde, and sour cream

 

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 Before I packed up everything in the kitchen I cooked some chicken breasts on the grill that I had brined in a mixture of the juice from a pickle jar and a jar of jalapeño peppers  plus brown sugar and garlic.  So yesterday I used a can of black beans from the pantry and made black bean and grilled chicken tacos with chopped spinach and salsa and grated cheddar cheese.

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Cheese fries topped with leftover pulled pork and beans, pepper jack, and sliced jalapeño.  (The basic fries were leftover from a meal at Beuchert's and I decided to doctor them up while reheating, plus it gave me a different use for the leftover pork and pintos.)
Wild shrimp cooked in lemon-herb water with a little salt and a lot of pepper, served with homemade cocktail sauce

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Last night, salad: Arugula with radishes, cucumber, chickpeas, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, homemade rye croutons, and homemade blue cheese dressing

Saturday I made meatloaf topped with bacon and a green chile scalloped onions recipe from the Homesick Texan blog.  The onions -- which called for a sweet onion such as Vidalia--were so sweet and meltingly fantastic, I was amazed.  I thought the recipe looked interesting but had no idea it would be that good.  Here is the recipe.  I used 2 large Vidalia onions, pepper jack cheese for an extra kick, and Ritz crackers (which is what i assumed the description meant).

I've made a couple of meals since using the leftover onions in grilled (provolone) cheese sandwiches on rosemary bread (once with bacon and one without), and OMG good.

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Last night was braised chicken thighs (red wine, chicken broth) with bacon, onions, mushrooms, olives, dates, walnuts and a drizzle of honey.  Side of leftover pan-roasted asparagus. 

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I've been trying to use up food in the freezer lately, so there's at least room to freeze new stuff.  The mac and cheese I vacuum-sealed from a huge batch has done very well in the freezer. It had great texture and tasted as delicious as it did when I ate some of the original batch. To freeze, I refrigerated the cooked lasagna pan of m&c until it was quite solid and then cut into blocks, which I then vacuum-sealed. I still have multiple packages of it left.  (I ate some of the defrosted block Tuesday for dinner and the reminder Wednesday for lunch.)

Last night was a dual entree of black-eyed pea and greens mini empanadas from the freezer and soft corn tacos made from frozen shredded cooked chicken.  The tacos also had salsa verde, avocado, shaved onion, and tomato. Both items were served with sour cream and Cholula.  

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Memorial day picnic on the balcony:

Traditional deviled eggs

Baguette sandwiches:  ham and Swiss with marinated cucumbers, and  roast pork and smoked provolone with marinated fennel. 

Avocado salad with a Dijon vinaigrette.

Chocolate cake, provided by the guests. 

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Last night was a hot arugula dip with baguette slices and Carr's rosemary crackers.  It used up several items that really had to be used, including some baby arugula that was too aged to be eaten raw; it really needed to be cooked. I had a little less arugula than the recipe called for, so that imbalanced it slightly more towards the cheesy than arugula side. What a shame:P.  I used pepper jack cheese instead of gruyere and heavy cream instead of milk. I would totally make this again, with the correct amounts and types of ingredients even!   http://notwithoutsalt.com/hot-arugula-dip/

The night before I had a mortadella and provolone sandwich on a baguette, a quasi-hoagie/sub.  Also included avocado, tomato, and chopped napa cabbage.

 

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