The brown lentils were marinated with olive oil, red wine vinegar, roasted garlic, chopped fresh basil, grated carrot and some diced red poblano for a bit of heat. And sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, of course.

Was your posole red or green? What manner of pork?

Tonight after quite a hiatus, I cooked. I made a cream of mushroom soup using a mixture of dried mushrooms and fresh button mushrooms. I reviewed recipes from Epicurious, Anthony Bourdain, Mark Bittman, recipe source and the back of the dried mushroom container. (Believe it or not, the back of the mushroom container came closest to what I finally made.) The soup was really good even Ol_Ironstomach said it was very good.

I drank a trimback pinot gris that we found in NJ on our last pilgrimage to NYC.

Now I am sleepy

Pork chops with a plum berry glaze, turnip and potato gratin, braised turnip greens, peas.
Haagen Daz for dessert- white chocolate raspberry truffle

Brined chicken breasts with shallots, rosemary and goat cheese (sauteed and stuffed under the skin)
Cauliflower au gratin made with herbed milk (thyme, onion, cloves), aged gruyere and parmesan.
Crusty bread.

Tonkatsu (fried, breaded pork cutlet)
Rice mixed with sake, sesame oil, and spinach
First (edible) batch of rice bran pickles

Chocolate black bean tostadas from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking.

I liked her 101 Cookbooks blog when she had it up, and I decided to try this cookbook. I'm not sure I want to acquire or make all of the ingredients she calls for, but it's a beautiful and interesting book.

The tostadas were good. The beans didn't require as much chocolate as the recipe called for, IMO. It called for 2 (4 oz.) chocolate bars, and I used 2 (Lindt 70% Cocoa Intense Dark) that were 3.5 oz. each. It was too much. I'm not a huge chocolate fan. It's okay, but I don't go nuts for it. To me, the amount of chocolate I used overwhelmed the taste of the spices in the beans. To someone else, it might be different. I'll use just 1 chocolate bar next time, but I'll definitely make this again.

Hanger steak with a lovely mustard/vinegar/tomato paste marinade/sauce
Steamed asparagus
Bread

I had turkey leftovers for lunch, which threw me into a 4 hour nap :-)

So my late night dinner tonight was baguette rounds, egg salad with sour cream, mayo and fresh chives and caviar on top. Salty, yummy and just what the doc ordered (NOT!).

Scott

Dah-um! This picture is worth more than 1000 words!

Edamame
Linguine with braised leeks, oven-roasted cherry tomatoes and toasted walnuts

Woodridge Pinot Grigio, 2006

Fuji apple (Thanksgiving penance)


Music to cook by: WPFW's Andrea Bray -- old school rhythm & blues

Green Salad
Cream of Mushroom Soup (cremini and dried shiitake; leeks; shallots; garlic)
Marvelous Market Jewish Rye with butter and ham

I just got a big box of Rancho Gordo beans. Tonight's dinner:

Soup made with RG cellini runner beans, lacinato kale, homemade chicken stock, smoked paprika, and chorizo
Bonaparte baguette
a bottle of "The Shadow"

Homemade butterscotch ice cream or Dolcezza bosc pear & bourbon sorbet

Last night:
green salad with vinaigrette
baked chicken breasts
rice pilaf
steamed broccoli with sesame hot pepper oil

This was the first Thanksgiving in the many years I've been going to my husband's family Thanksgivings that there was no rice pilaf, so I made some last night to go with our chicken. Maybe I'll volunteer to make it next year to ensure there is some. (When we got back home and I commented to my husband that I noticed one traditional food was not present at the meal--a rather large spread--he knew immediately which dish I was referring to. There's always pilaf at Thanksgiving.)

Last night:
Cream of crimini mushroom and roasted chestnut soup with leeks, great northern beans and Russian kale*
Atwater Bakery Struan bread
Rustic apple tart and gingered quince tart
2005 Pascal Jolivet Pouilly Fumé

*The base of this soup was the rest of the brown turkey stock that I didn't use for the T-day dressing and gravy. I had a lot of chestnuts that didn't go into the dressing, and they were roasted over a fire on Saturday. I peeled and ground them into a fine meal, and they basically thickened the soup. I also added some leftover creamed onions, porcini powder and bits of turkey meat, and the last of the Lewes Dairy heavy cream. Wicked good winter soup.

Curry-roasted butternut squash and chickpeas
Quick, easy, healthy, delicious. Recommended.

Broccoli in spicy peanut sauce over long fusilli

Sort of a clean-out-the-fridge salad. Fried a pile of lardons until crispy and plenty of pork fat rendered. Fried up some croutons in the fat, and then fried a ton of sliced mushrooms with parsley and basil. Lay down some lettuce, seedless cucumber and a roma tomato. Pile on some left over turkey meat, the croutons, the shrooms and the crispy lardons. Surprisingly scrumptious - miracle of pork fat, I suppose

Scott

My sleep schedule is all whacked out, so I made another dinner around 6:00 AM!

I made a tasty Thai red curry turkey with eggplant. 1/2 a large onion sliced, 1/2 a large eggplant cubed, a minced serano chile (seeds and all), some turkey broth to deglaze the pan after cooking the veges, two cans of coconut milk, 4 tbsp or so of fish sauce, a small jar of Thai red curry paste, all the leftover turkey I had in the fridge (glad to be rid of that), fresh basil and parsley (unfortunately no fresh cilantro). Serve over some fragrant jasmine rice and voila - a nice (very) early morning dinner

Scott

Enchiladas de pavo en molé negro de Oaxaca
Frijoles refritos
Arroz amarillo
guacamole & chips
pico de gallo

Cerveza Pacifico

Beef barley vegetable soup
Green salad with vinaigrette
Cornmeal-breaded fried haddock over rice pilaf

Omelets with herbs, goat cheese, and madrange ham, made with the last of my Sunnyside eggs
steamed broccoli
the last bottle of the last case of rose I bought from Ace Beverage
mascarpone ice cream

Mushroom, barley and bean soup with turkey stock
Appalachian tomme and "camembert" from Stonyman/Walnut Hill Farm
Leftover chicken faux gras
Spiced olives
Marvy Market baguette

Trader Joe's chocolate chip ice cream sandwich

2005 Gobelsburger Gruner Veltliner

Tamales and Refried Beans.

Had a few mishaps here:

1) I bought 3lb of pork shoulder before thanksgiving, intending to cook it then. Things got delayed, and when I ended up finally opening the package, it turns out that 11 days in the fridge is too long Upside is that one of my guests was on his way to Giant for his own stuff, and he picked up a bone-in shoulder for $1.30/lb. It's been a while since I bought pork from Giant/Safeway, and I had forgotten how much cheaper it was.
2) I picked up some Poblano peppers at Whole Foods, mistakenly thinking they were spicy. Thus, the pork was green, but very mild in spice.
3) The masa was too dry. I think I just didn't use enough lard.
4) Without thinking, I used all my lard on the masa, and thus when I went to fry the beans, I had to improvise and fry up some guanciale and use the rendered grease from that to flavor the beans.
5) I forgot to add a penny to the steamer on the first go-round, and all the moisture evaporated, leaving me with a burnt-out pan and a bunch of charred corn husks. Luckily, the insides were still ok (for the most part), but my apartment still smells a bit burnt.

It could have gone worse, and there weren't any complaints (my guests are nice folks), but I was still disappointed. Ah well, there's always next time.

caipirinha (Fazenda Mae de Ouro cachaca, aged one year in oak; I have some really good friends)
black bean soup
jerk pork (tenderloin)
roasted candied sweet potato
(lightly) creamed spinach
rice
pumpkin bar cookies

RE#2: The traditional pairing with pork in tamales is red chile, made with dried chiles. The usual chile used is guajillo,which is mildly spicy, so you can throw in a few hotter chiles in the mix if you want. Green chile is usually paired with chicken. It is difficult to predict how spicy a poblano is going to be. That's why it is important to taste them. And why you want to serve the tamales with a salsa, either raw or cooked. And have a bottle of hot sauce on the table.

RE #3: What you probably needed more of was broth. It's also very important to whip the lard to get it really fluffy before you start adding the masa, and then the broth. The way to tell whether you have a batter thats "just right" is called The Float Test. You take a cup of water and drop a teaspoon of batter in--it should pop right up to the top and float if it has been beaten long enough and has enough broth. If it sinks, you're not there yet. Making tamales with masa batter that flunks The Float Test will yield disappointing results. The voice of experience is speaking here.

RE #4: When I have been without lard, I have still been able to make tasty beans with olive oil. The key is to saute onion in the fat, and cook the beans with the sauteed onion and some cumin, Mexican oregano, allspice and bay leaf.

RE #5: I'll bet you never make THAT mistake again.

Dinner tonight:

Roasted lamb meatballs
Steamed rice
Spiced carrot and chickpea salad
Tomato wedges with olive oil and basil
Tzatziki
Feta cheese
Kalamata olives and peperoncini
Quince mostarda
Afghan bread

Oatmeal-almond bars with date-fig-orange filling
Pear cobbler

2005 Castel del Monte Rosso

tortellini pasta fagioli w/ spinach*
texas toast

Raspberry Zazz

*Comfort food redefined

Last night was pasta, tomato sauce with lots of spinach and homemade ground turkey meatballs - a bit of fridge cleaning: celery, leeks, garlic, fresh oregano and parsley and a little sage, a few green onions, pecorino romano, bread crumbs, an egg, salt/pepper, etc. Baked 'em this time around, but I think I prefer them sauteed in olive oil. Still yummy

Tonight was a big salad platter. The platter was covered with fresh spinach and baby arugula, with proscuitto-smoked salmon-mascarpone rollups around the edge and cured black olives scattered around. I drizzled lemon juice over the whole thing and then put warm spinach gnocchi (coated in olive oil and black pepper and dressed with a tiny bit of creme fraiche and fat free half and half, and sprinkled with grated pecorino romano) in the center. I grated a little more Romano over the whole thing and added a sprinkling of crushed hot pepper flakes over the gnocchi.

We also had baguette slices with soy spread. Very nice meal.

Cream of sunchoke soup, made with duck stock
Mesclun and mache salad with bosc pear, Cashel blue cheese and pine nuts

2004 Domaine Bott-Geyl Gentil d'Alsace

Cousin Ronnie's Harford County Black Angus beef in a stew with potatoes and root vegetables.
Biscuits
2004 Melanson Vineyard Syrah
Cherries soaked in moonshine.

Mayacoba beans from Rancho Gordo simmered with smoked turkey parts

Delicious! The beans held the smoky flavor really well, even if the turkey pieces were too big to fit in the soup bowls . The only other seasoning was some minced toasted Penzeys onions I tossed in while the beans were cooking. It didn't need anything else. (I would have put more flavoring in, but I was busy and distracted. I'm glad I didn't.)

Any of you Rancho Gordo bean eaters notice the company is noted in the December issue of Gourmet? Christmas limas, of course.

Diiner to Watch Your Bathroom Ceiling Collapse By:

Tonight I decided to roast a pretty little Long Island pumpkin to make a soup w red lentils that Nigel Slater uses to launch Kitchen Diaries. Flavored w ginger, garlic, turmeric, etc. I sautéed a leek, added a carrot and subbed toasted guajillos for chili powder. Puréed. A caramelized onion mixture is tossed in as a garnish at end.

Pretty, but turmeric was too heavy-handed and I missed stock. I like sugar pumpkins quite a bit, but this type seemed to have contributed nothing.

Tonight:
Yukon gold potato latkes
Homemade apple sauce
Sour cream
Oven-roasted Eco-Friendly chicken-- spatchcocked (gee, I love that word!)

2005 Feudi di San Gregorio Falanghina

Last night was kapusta, made with some recently acquired polish sausage and bacon. I don't know that it was the most authentic recipe, but it came out well.

We also had garlic bread and more of the smoky mayacoba beans. The beans could have gone right into the kapusta for serving, I think. I served them separately but ended up mixing mine together .

Chicken stew: Roast chicken and remove the meat from the bones. Simmer carrot, celery, a little diced onion, and thyme in double-strength chicken stock and a little water. Remove veg when tender and make a veloute with the stock. Enrich sauce with cream and pour over chicken and vegetables. Grind fresh pepper over at the table. Serve with hot biscuits.

Dinner (made by cjsadler) on wednesday was beef stroganoff with roasted carrots and for dessert, we had flan. Both recipes are from Cook's Illustrated.

Last night:

Roasted salmon with white miso crust
Braised bok choy with mushrooms
Sticky rice with toasted sesame seeds and scallions
Gingered miso-dashi broth

Coq au vin
Roasted potatoes
Green Salad
Rice pudding


Back in high school, coq au vin was the height of sophistication and sometimes cold, snowy weather heightens nostalgia for me. Drumsticks from legs go into the stock pot, so I just cooked the thighs. The early purple shade of the chicken is rather unappealing and the skin of braised poultry is not terribly appetizing. Not traditional, but I always add carrots. Results more bourgeois than Piaf, but sauce was quite good and leftovers will probably end up in a risotto. Butter leaf lettuce w shallot vinaigrette and a few fine threads of Gruyere got a little bit of the sauce, too.

On the other hand, potatoes and dessert were both fantastic. Julia Child asks you to boil your lardons for 10 minutes, then blot them off and slowly cook them in butter, remove them, and brown your chicken before returning the bacon to the pot and proceeding with the recipe. Well, the resulting mixture of dairy, porcine and bird fats was just the thing to pour out of the Dutch oven and reserve. Peeled and cut up a couple of potatoes and boiled them. Turned them in the fat, sprinkled on salt and baked slowly for a good long while along with dessert, before turning up heat for the finish. Golden, puffy, creamy.

Recipe for pudding here. Used vanilla sugar (a little less) and just a tiny amount of grated zest from a Meyer lemon in one dish instead of individual ramkins. Longer time, stirring to prevent skin. Handful of gold raisins stirred in when done. Not part of family repertoire, so not exactly nursery food. But could be.

On a whim, I made a recipe last night I hadn't made in ages: angel hair pasta with sour cream, chives, and caviar. I was amazed I actually remembered which of my cookbooks it was from (the classic 365 Ways to Cook Pasta ) .

It's very simple but I made some changes because I didn't have the ingredients. I rarely change a recipe much the first time I make it, but when I have a feel for a recipe because I've made it a bunch of times, I'm not as concerned about how changes will turn out. I didn't have angel hair so used vermicelli, which was the thinnest pasta I had. I didn't have the chives, so I used chopped parsley for some green. I had salmon caviar (the reason I decided to make the dish). When I made it before, I would use red or black caviar from the supermarket. Since I had the salmon, I also topped the final dish with some pieces of smoked salmon encircling the mound of caviar on top of the pasta. (We also had a big green salad.)

The other main change was something I've done most times I've made this. Instead of tossing the cooked pasta with butter and then topping it with a dollop of warm sour cream, I omit the butter and toss the pasta directly with the sour cream. So, I pretty much didn't make the recipe in the book at all .

Had friends over for a near-to-end of Hannukah dinner...

Latkes with sour cream, applesauce & cinnamon-n-sugar for accompaniment
Rotisserie chicken
Large green salad with black olives, artichoke hearts & feta with champagne vinaigrette dressing

Icebox lemonade pie for dessert

Bottle of Pinot Grigio & a bottle of Gewterztreminer (sp?)

Fennel-orange salad with balsamic-maple vinaigrette
Baked chicken legs
Fingerling potato salad

Gewurztraminer.

Thanks, Zora. I was just too tired to pull out my Wine Bible.

Same theme here:
Latkes with sour cream, and homemade applesauce (it has red-hots in it...there's the cinn/sugar!)
Rotisserie Chicken
Pan roasted carrots, oven roasted broccoli and cauliflower
Lemon Sorbet for dessert
Bottle of Sparkling Pinot/Chardonnay

eta: forgot to mention the whole wheat challah and brisket from costco

Grandma's latkes with homemade applesauce (Suncrisp apples picked at Larriland Farms)
Jumbo lump crabcakes
Green beans w/almonds
Challah

Salmon pot pie w/ leeks and shitakes
Pain au chocolat

2006 Champalou Vouvray

Music: Carmen McRae; Sarah: Dedicated To You

[Major procrastination mode today: came across a Cook's Country recipe for a salmon-leek pot pie. Unfortunately, my Cook's Illustrated login does not work with Cook's Country. In a fierce effort to clean out the fridge/freezer – I got rid of salmon, a leek, some puff pastry and cream – and avoid doing any actual work, I decided I was going to "wing" it. With help from several, more experienced cooks, I came up with the following:

Sautéed sliced leeks and shitakes; added and burned off some white wine. Cubed and seasoned (Old Bay) salmon fillet. Mixed all with a sorta thick Béchamel (because… as I was reminded… the vegetables and fish will release liquid while cooking. Which explained the smoke coming from the oven.). Placed in casserole and topped with puff pastry. Baked for 20m at 425, then 5m at 400.

Really quite simple. And… pretty darn tasty at that. Although I'm quite proud of myself , I really do need to thank mktye, cjsadler, and zoramargolis for suggestions and hints.]

Cod Grapefruit Beurre Blanc
Roast Chanterelles and Cauliflower
Roast Brussel Sprouts and Chesnuts

Gaba do Xil Godello 2006 (hat tip to Don from several months ago, I've only just now found a Godello at CW for $9 and it went great with my otherwise mismosh dinner flavors and was much more interesting than any other cheap white I've had of late)

Chocolate Pound Cake

Acacia A Pinot Noir 2005

smoked turkey leg
(microwaved) baked potatoes with lowfat sour cream*
warm roasted beets tossed with with goat cheese and balsamic vinegar
roasted brussels sprouts with toasted sliced almonds and pecorino romano



*These were a last-minute addition when I realized my husband wouldn't be eating brussels sprouts. The sprouts came out quite well, and I had them all to myself .

I'm glad you worked it out. It sounds great. I hate working with leeks, though I love leeks.

The formatting in this article is a bit off, including missing recipe titles, but it looks like it's here. (It's second from the bottom, the one that's from Cover and Bake.)