It's a new recipe, using cabbage leaves instead of grape leaves. The directions are not all that terribly clear either

It's late and I should go to bed, and now I'm wanting to dig out the bottle of Jameson's . I really only like it late in the day. It's like a bedtime story.

Even if the cheese and crackers doesn't taste great, keep it in the routine. What my parents often had as an appetizer was sardines on saltines. I think that usually went with beer or coke, but my dad had it with whiskey sometimes. The sardines were nothing special, but I can never find them the way they used to be. I guess that's in my head.

A bowl of Progresso lentil soup and some sourdough bread.

Hey, some of us are postdocs.

Since the kraut was canned, it was already quite tender. But I oven braised it for a couple of hours, while I made the sausage mixture and stuffed the casings. It would have been okay with less oven time. And I agree with you about the pork fat. For a real choucroute garnie, it would have braised together with sausages and smoked pork chops. However, I wanted my veggie daughter to eat some of it, so I had to cook the kraut and the sausages separately. Even so, it was mighty good.

During the past week or two, I've been in a cooking frenzy--in addition to the previously mentioned lamb burgers and black bean chili, dinners have included turkey and roasted red pepper meatloaf (really good), smoky corn chowder (amazing), and sausage with red peppers and onions (better the second day). I also pre-froze some individual servings of chicken quarters with a lemon, caper, and tomato sauce--I haven't cooked any of the servings yet, but hopefully it will end up being a better alternative to Let's Dish-type stuff.

Last night? I was hormonal and tired of the kitchen. Papa John's has never tasted so good...

I get the same way. Even though DH always cleans up or helps a lot, sometimes the last thing I want to do is drag out a pan. Those nights what I make for dinner is a phone call. Chinese, Thai, Dominos

Salad with pan-roasted pear, Cashel blue cheese, hazelnuts, sherry vinaigrette
Oven-braised short ribs
roasted crimini mushrooms
baby beets
mashed Yukon Gold potatoes

2000 Dom. du Trapadis Rasteau Les Ardres

Last night;
Herb salad with the last of the campari tomatoes from Costco (these suckers last a good long time)
Barilla enriched pasta with chicken, onions, peppers, Spanish and kalamata olives in a marinar sauce. Melted the last of the Blue Ridge mozzarella on top.
Too full for dessert

Has anyone else tried the "higher protein" enriched pastas? The Barilla isn't bad, but I don't like the texture. It seems to cook faster and goes from al dente to falling apart quite quickly.
I have another box of fusilli that I have to use, but I don't know that I can get myself to continue using this "healthier" pasta.

Caldo del mar--Mexican seafood stew with a base of shrimp stock, roasted poblanos, tomatillos, onions and garlic, with shrimp, scallops, monkfish, squid, crabmeat, Manila clams and mussels, garnished with cilantro, scallion and fresh lime

corn tortillas

2006 Dom. de Couron Viognier

Julia's Empanadas pineapple coconut empanada and Krispy Kreme lemon and raspberry-filled donuts

Chopped beef and grilled onion pizza, homemade crust, very thin, charred edge. Not bad if I do say so myself. Simple green salad with dressing of olive oil, white wine vinegar, and Tiparos fish sauce.

My pizzas are getting better. I bought two cheap pizza stones and they seem to work fairly well. I do them in my electric convection oven set at its highest setting, which is convection roast at 550; takes about 1 hr. to heat up.

Halibut marinated and roasted with a sesame-soy-ginger sauce
Cooked spinach drizzled with the same sauce

Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc

The surprise of the evening was the wine. One of those wines you sip and say Whoa. Really crisp; a nice counter to the ginger.

My fiance is returning home tonight after a week on the Left Coast. I'm making some late night snacks.

Open faced rib-eye sandwiches (toasted ficelle, Boursin, steak, lightly pickled onions)

"Komi" dates

Ratatouille/feta on Ak-Mak crackers

Brie/raspberry preserve won tons

Blood orange confit w/ slivered almonds and whipped cream

During my recent cooking frenzy, I pre-froze a bunch of chicken legs and thighs (in individual portions) with diced tomatoes, lemon juice, capers, salt, pepper, and a little bit of oil. Last night, I popped two servings in the oven at 400 degrees, and after about 50 minutes (and a few moments in the broiler), I had tender, juicy chicken with a light sauce and a great crispy skin. Way better than "Let's Dish"--I'll have to find more of these freeze-ahead meals for the future!

Last night:
Charcoal grilled burgers on brioche buns with grilled onion
Grilled portobellos with P'tit Basque on brioche buns for Veggie-teen and her veggie friend
Homemade coleslaw with bosc pear and pear cider vinegar as the sweet/sour elements in the mayo/yogurt dressing

Ambrosia: fresh pineapple, mango, banana, blood orange, unsweetened coconut and coconut milk

2005 Norton Malbec Reserva

cream of potato and chile soup
braised pork shoulder with onions and tomatoes over couscous

homemade mushroom/prosciutto ravioli in a sage brown butter sauce
mac and cheese (gruyere, cheddar, parmesan) with bacon
seared sea scallops

a bite of a wegman's chocolate/peanut butter tart for dessert - no time to make homemade dessert!

a bit carb-heavy? sure. but a fun birthday dinner for a pasta-loving friend

It was getting late. I had just arrived in Rome, left my bags in my room and passport at the front desk.

Map in hand, I headed for Piazza Navona to make like Santa Teresa under the golden shaft of an angel, only with a little plastic spoon and a frozen ball of gelato in a paper cup.

Dinner first: my introduction to spaghetti carbonara. At the far right corner of the piazza, there was one trattoria open that was willing to let me order only a primo and a salad. Sweaty, pudgy waiter who needed a shave, more comfortable shoes and something to look forward to. Slimy strands slick with oil, speckled with black pepper and fatty porky bits adrift in a winy sea. They must have just run out of eggs. Nor was the Tartufo afterwards the ecstasy I recalled from years before.

I bet Zingerman's cures guanciale now. I know they carried this amazing, thick spaghetti from a place in Pisa that stuffs the dried pasta into bright yellow bags and I must have had a source for pancetta somewhere in Dearborn, if not at Sparrow across the street in Kerrytown. Nonetheless, the first truly good bowl of carbonara I ever had was in Ann Arbor, Michigan where Rod and Pam cracked eggs from the supermarket and mixed them with American bacon and Ronzoni. I thought they came up with the idea at the spur of the moment and it was only after looking for a recipe at home that I connected carbonara to that greasy dish in Rome.

Side-tracked and hungry, the other night I remembered the thick slice of pancetta in the freezer and made carbonara instead of the more time-consuming meal I had planned. Set water on to boil. Washed fresh spinach leaves whose stems I had already chopped and added to soup. Put them in a frying pan on the back burner w olive oil, slivers of garlic and anchovies; sprinkle of Kosher salt.

Let the crisp little cubes of pancetta sit in the fat for 5-6 minutes off the heat before pouring in the egg beaten with Romano, and worried that the Dutch oven really wasn't a good idea since the mixture looked more cooked than I would have liked.

Set the colander over a big, clunky white bowl and drained the spaghetti before tossing it in with the eggs, cheese and pork and tightly covering it for a minute. Poured the hot water out of the bowl and wiped its toasty surface dry. Took the lid off the pot and smiled.

Every once in a while hunger reminds you how good ordinary, routine parts of your life can be. Glass of cheap wine. Anouk Aimée. Jean-Louis Trintignant. Dah Dah Dah dadadada-da' dadadada-da' dadadada-da' dah dah dah...

Pan-fried buttermilk marinated chicken thighs
Collard greens
Anson Mills artisan white grits with cheddar cheese

Bread pudding with canned peaches and blackberry coulis

2006 Dom. de Couron Viognier

Quiche with apple, fennel, onion, and Stilton
Spinach, red onion, bacon, and Stilton salad
2005 Plan de L'Om Coteaux du Languedoc
Dessert sounded good in concept - miniature tarts with creme patissiere and spiced cherry compote - but the cherries overwhelmed the pastry cream. Needs work.

Shepherd's pie
Braised Savoy cabbage with nigella seeds
Guinness chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting (it looks like a freshly pulled pint but tastes like chocolate heaven)

Crimini-porcini mushroom lasagna with mozzarella di bufala and homemade ricotta
Mixed green salad
Leftover bread pudding

2005 Zardini Ripasso Valpolicella

Chicken sausage, and the kale/savoy/bread soup from Jamie Oliver's cooking show a couple weeks back. Good stuff.

Smothered Eco-friendly pork chops
Mashed potatoes with lots of smothering gravy
Green beans with roasted garlic, red pepper and lemon

2004 J.P. Champagnon Fleurie

Last night:
Corned Beef and Cabbage

Tonight:
Leftover pork shoulder with couscous, doctored up with some organic chicken broth and a dried chipotle from Whole Foods (previously rehydrated and stored in the fridge).

Pita bread

Guacamole and chips

Belated response, but I never would have thought this would be a problem since pastry cream is sort of comparable to whipped cream on top of desserts, i.e., there for purposes other than distinctive flavor. Maybe some almond extract in the creme and a little almond flour in the tart shells? Alternative: just a little zest.

But I like the flavor of pastry cream. The real problem is the compote. I cooked the cherries with a few slices of ginger and half a cinnamon stick; the spices didn't exactly overwhelm the cherries, but the compote would be more appropriate with roasted duck or venison in December than with pastry in March. I think just fresh sweet cherries would work best, and like you said, with a bit of lemon zest and a touch of almond.

Last night: Leftover braised beef (more like pulled beef), which turned out very good with a crazy mix of coke, onion soup mix, and chili sauce. Herbed gnocchi and asparagus.

Grilled corned beef on rye with cabbage and provolone (1000 Island on mine; husband doesn't like it)
Black bean soup with chipotle (from a TJ package I've never tried before)

seared tuna steak seasoned with pepper, some amazing citrus EVOO and chardonnay salt that HV gave me for the holidays &
sauteed squash, zucchini and onion

Maiale al latte-- boneless pork shoulder butt from Cibola Farms slow braised in milk and aromatic veg a la Madeleine Kamman
Wild mushroom risotto
Marinated lentil salad (for Veggie-teen, with some mozz di bufala)
Haricots verts with Meyer lemon

2006 Dom. du Tariquet Cotes de Gacogne*

*This is a blend of ugni blanc and colombard that I picked up at P Street Whole Foods for $6.99. It's probably in the last stage of its optimal drinking window, but it is drinking wonderfully right now, and it has all that you could want in an everyday food-friendly white wine: terrific balance of fruit/acidity/minerality. Very refreshing. I'm going back for a few more bottles at that price. (edited to add: when I went today, it was $7.99. I don't know whether the price went up or I wrote it down incorrectly. Still a good deal IMO.)

Mesclun* with campari tomatoes, mozzarella strings, and shiitake sesame vinaigrette
Rice pilaf with fresh English peas
Baked chicken thighs


*When I was in PA last week and took my aunt to dinner at our usual spot near her apartment, I did a double take when I saw Sesame Chicken and Mescaline Greens on the menu. The description, to be sure, said "Mescaline greens with crispy fried noodles and walnuts topped with our spicy plum and sesame glazed fried chicken." [$9.95]

I thought there might be an odd menu thread around here somewhere but I couldn't find it. So that specimen is posted here for your enjoyment.

.pdf of the menu with said salad here: http://www.caseysdh.com/menu_index.asp

but the "real" Cheez Whiz made my tastebuds stand up and pay attention. Although I wouldn't feel that way after real "mescaline" I don't think.

. The real Cheez Whiz caught my attention too. Can't be using the fake Whiz. I'm not sure if Whiz has hallucinogenic properties, but we can imagine.

There are several of those restaurants in that area of PA, along where the trolley lines used to be. I don't know if they all have the same ownership or are independently owned. The menus seem to vary store to store. The one in my home town is not as good as this one, so I'll cut them slack on the goofy menu descriptions.

To take this back to dinner relevance, the meal in question was a week ago and I had a turkey club and bacon-cheese fries. (It was a $2 charge to sub a half order of the cheese fries app for the fries that come with a sandwich.) It was a filling meal, and the remaining half sandwich made a good breakfast the next morning.

Shepherd's pie made with leftover braised short ribs
Veggie-teen had leftover mushroom lasagna
Mixed green salad with feta, pine nuts and balsamic vinaigrette

Almendrades--almond cookies with Meyer lemon, made for Veggie-teen's Spanish class pre-Spring Break party

2005 Capçanes Mas Donis

West African Groundnut and Chicken Stew, fresh Cilantro
Long grain rice
Toigo hot house cukes with a bit of vinegar, sugar and dill
blackberry bundt cake

Would you please post the recipe in the cookie thread?

Chilled asparagus salad
strawberries; balsamic blood orange vinagrette; toasted sesame seeds

Marinated antipasto subs
provolone; cheddar; proscuitto; salami, soppressata; tapenade; pepperoncini; pickles

The dressing for the subs is a little of the same used for the salad, plus some dried oregano, basil, and thyme.

Dinner tonight:

Charcoal-grilled spice-rubbed rib-eye
Chiles rellenos stuffed with homemade queso fresco, salsa ranchera
Arroz amarillo
refried beans (La Costeña brand canned)
Trader Joe's corn tortillas
Cerveza Pacifico

Dessert was unusual--a hybrid dacquoise and pavlova. The base was a large crispy rectangular shell of baked meringue that was made with ground roasted hazelnuts incorporated into the beaten eggwhites and sugar, spread with vanilla pastry cream flavored with St. Germain elderflower liqueur, and decorated with circles of sliced fresh fruit: strawberries, bananas, seedless muscat grapes, clementine sections and blueberries, served with whipped cream. It was both beautiful and delicious.

It all started last night, when Veggie-teen asked me to make something for her to take to her French class' pre-spring break party. Something French. I mentioned that I had a box of frozen Trader Joe's puff pastry dough. We talked about possibly millefeuilles, or a napoleon. I remembered that I had just bought two boxes of strawberries, and I suggested a tarte aux fraises, which would feed more people. That sounded great to V-T, but if we made it the night before, it would be soggy. In any case, her French class was in the afternoon, so I suggested that I make it this morning and she said she could come home during lunch break to pick it up. Then, last night we made almendrados to bring for her second period Spanish class. And this morning, she took along some ground Peet's, the press pot, some blood orange peel and cinnamon sticks to make Spanish coffee to accompany the almond cookies.

After she left for school this morning, I made vanilla pastry cream for the tarts, and used six eggyolks, which left all of those eggwhites. And there was a lot of pastry cream left over. I thought about a pavlova, and then I noticed a small container of hazelnuts sitting on top of the microwave, and one thing led to another and I used whatever fruits I had in the house and it turned into an amazing dessert.

When I pulled a steak out of the freezer to defrost for dinner, a bag of peeled ripe poblanos that I froze last fall fell on the floor, and they were so perfectly shaped they called out to be stuffed with cheese, but what kind of cheese did I have in the house? Well there was the rest of that container of whole milk I'd bought for the pastry cream... and another thing led to another, and I spent all day in the kitchen.

But Veggie-teen's Spanish class loved the almond cookies and flavored press pot coffee, her French teacher was over the moon about the beautiful, homemade tarte aux fraises, and we had an incredibly good dinner, even if I didn't make the tortillas or the refried beans from scratch.

Tonkatsu plated with shredded cabbage and tonkatsu sauce
Shira-ae (tofu and sesame dressing) mixed with simmered carrot, shiitake, and konnyaku (devil's tongue jelly)
Miso soup with wakame seaweed and more sliced shiitake
Steamed rice
Dainagawa Sannin Toji sake from Yokote, Akita Prefecture

beef vegetable barley soup
spinach lasagna
baguette

Butter lettuce with hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, cucumber, and Emmental cheese, with blood orange-balsamic vinaigrette
Bunny bread (bunny shaped brioche from Marvelous Market) and butter
Ham studded with cloves and drizzled with honey, served with crushed pineapple
Scalloped potatoes
Steamed broccoli with butter

Lunch: Pizza al Formaggio
Dinner: Susanna Foo's Honey grilled lamb chops with jalapeno puree
Grilled asparagus with soy sauce and sesame oil
Orzo with scallions, parmesan, and jalapeno peppers

I cooked dinner.

"French wonton" (brie and raspberry in wonton wrappers, deep fried).

Sour cream "three ways" (in a smoked salmon/cucumber/shallot "salad," with brown sugar on a sauteed apple slice, with horseradish) served with reibekuchen

Shrimp/asparagus/orange/arugula salad with tangerine gastrique

Boeuf Bourguinion with garlic potato puree

Vanilla panna cotta with orange supremes and an ginger-orange reduction

Cakelove cupcakes

I used the last of my brisket-cubed it up, made some more "gravy" and put it over sliced Eve ciabatta bread.
With leftover roasted asparagus- I boiled up potatoes in chicken stock, added the asparagus and pureed a bit to make a nice soup.

The in-laws were visiting from Germany, and I made Easter dinner. A roast leg of lamb after a Pepin recipe, with braised artichoke hearts and a gratin of potatoes boulangere (with oninons, garlic, chicken stock and white wine.) The lamb was OK, but a bit messy; and my artichoke prep skills need serious work.

The best course I think was the appetizers: little rounds of brioche sauteed in clarified butter, topped with goose foie gras terrine that we brought back with us from Alsace over the holidays, a slice of black truffle, then a little dollop of blackberry marmalade and finally a sprinkle of fleur du sel on top. I served them with a 2003 Chateau d'Arche. Fantastic. My seven year-old gobbled four of them up faster than I could count. As I looked forlornly at the few remaining for me, my wife looked at me and said, "At least be glad that he likes them."

marinated asparagus
baked chicken thighs
chilaquile casserole
remainder of brioche from yesterday (aka bunny butt)

Shrimp and talapia with orzo and an egg based lemon sauce.
Next Step's gnarly carrots with honey, red wine vinegar, brown sugar and crystalized ginger (gnarly=they look like Keith Richard's fingers)

Pugliese Stuffed Eggplant w Capers
Pilaf w Noodles
Spinach
Strawberries

The eggplant was prepared ahead since the flavors improve over time. Dish was introduced by a native who recommends the traditional method of frying the empty shells of eggplant halves in olive oil.

To reduce calories, I used a trick from David Downie, parboiling the whole eggplant for 5 minutes. Once cool enough to handle, I split it and cut out the flesh.

Flesh pulverized in food processor, it gets sautéed in heated olive oil until soft and starting to color. Then add ground beef (1/4 lb. per half of large supermarket eggplant) and break up with fork, cooking till all pink gone.

Cool mixture, then incorporate beaten egg, fresh bread crumbs, grated Romano and a little salt and pepper. Use judgment for amounts. Nothing else, but since you're going to use canned tomatoes at this time of year, a little garlic and and herbs would not be bad. Purity of taste is aim, though.

Then, take a nice simple tomato sauce, thinning it with water if it's not something you purchased, such as the Italian boxes of passata now available in supermarkets. I used Mario Batali's, my latest favorite, made w grated carrot, onion, garlic and a little thyme. Used the immersion blender to smooth out when cooked.

Top the eggplant halves w generous amount of runny sauce and dot liberally with capers. Bake at 350 (or 425--which I ended up switching to) for 40 minutes, adding more water to sauce given long time in oven.

Let cool to room temperature. Just okay first day, but a real joy the second when brought back to room temperature. Don't serve hot.

Lots of good bread is traditional accompaniment, but I love Paula Wolfert's pilaf w browned fragments of dried angel hair pasta.

Many years ago, this is how I used to make eggplant parmesan (except I sliced it an inch or so thick and parboiled it). I didn't use any kind of recipe to make it, but it always came out really well. I remember I had neighbors who liked it when I made this. Once I started consulting recipes, I changed the way I did it, and I don't know if I even remember my original method any more.

I love stuffed eggplant. I'll have to come back to your description next time I make it.

Corned beef hash with fried eggs
Mini BLT's

Penne with asparagus, roasted shallots, mushrooms, toasted panko and Gorgonzola

Pear and Gorgonzola

(Tonight's dinner was just an excuse to indulge in a 1/4 lb. of blue cheese; I'll pay for it tomorrow.)