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Salad of pea shoots, toasted hazelnuts, cucumber, and radishes; vinaigrette

Sweet potato rolls with soy spread

Linguine with sloppy joe sauce

I wasn't too thrilled about the sloppy joe recipe when I originally made it for sandwiches, but it was more satisfactory as a spaghetti sauce. The sweet potato rolls I'd made months ago. They held up well in the freezer.

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Salad of pea shoots, toasted hazelnuts, cucumber, and radishes; vinaigrette

Sweet potato rolls with soy spread

Linguine with sloppy joe sauce

I wasn't too thrilled about the sloppy joe recipe when I originally made it for sandwiches, but it was more satisfactory as a spaghetti sauce. The sweet potato rolls I'd made months ago. They held up well in the freezer.

That sauce might work magic on manicotti as well. Instead of an all-cheese filling, incorporate cubes of sauteed & seasoned green peppers and onion along with the cheese, hence echoing the vegetal flavors.

And wowza your dinner sounds delicious.

(firefox spell check does not recognize vegetal)

(nor manicotti)

(conspiracy?)

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That sauce might work magic on manicotti as well. Instead of an all-cheese filling, incorporate cubes of sauteed & seasoned green peppers and onion along with the cheese, hence echoing the vegetal flavors.

And wowza your dinner sounds delicious.

Thanks :blink: . The sauce did seem pretty pasta compatible. I don't think I'd make it just for that purpose, though.

The pea shoots had quite a long life--a full week--but I think last night was probably their last usable application. There was a bit of redundancy in the menu selections (bacon :D potatoes :lol: ), but I had ingredients that needed to be used.

Salad plate: strawberries with pea shoots, bacon, and balsamic vinegar

Roasted turkey breast

Sweet potato & swiss chard gratin with bacon

Mashed potatoes

I needed turkey for another recipe so decided to roast a breast to generate leftovers. I was at Harris Teeter and couldn't find any turkey breast in the poultry refrigerated case. Most supermarkets used to have it year round, I thought. They pointed me to a freezer case where there was packaged frozen seafood. Alongside the seafood were several turkey breasts, frozen solid. I didn't recognize the name on the label--a farm in NC. Since that's where the store is based, I figured it was one of their local suppliers and decided to go for it. I bought the turkey (6 1/2 lbs.) and brought it home to defrost for a few days. I didn't know what to expect in terms of quality, but it produced a moist, tasty, gorgeous roasted turkey breast that gave off a pretty minimal amount of liquid. Color me surprised, but happily so.

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Roasted whole chicken in tamarind butter:

Marinade: coriander seeds, star anise, cinnamon stick, garlic, soy sauce

Sauce: unsalted butter, tamarind liquid, fish sauce, soy sauce, palm sugar syrup, cayenne

Barley and zucchini

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"De-Motivator's Pasta"

Porcini tortellini mixed with chopped green beans, sliced cremini mushrooms, diced onion, crushed garlic sauteed in olive oil, with herbs from the fridge, spices from the pantry, mixed with a grilled eggplant/Muir Glen fire-roasted crushed tomato/hrm-I've-forgotten-what-else sauce with a few cubes of Monocacy Silver thrown in for good measure.

A mouthful.

A soulful.

Take that, rain.

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Sunday night:

Mushroom pizza on homemade crust (my first attempt - not bad, but needs tweaking)

Last night:

Oven-fried chicken breasts (from a Cooking Light recipe - breading consisted of toasted panko, finely chopped walnuts, chopped fresh rosemary, and shredded parmesan)

Steamed broccoli and cauliflower

A sauv blanc that wasn't very good - I normally don't drink during the week, but yesterday was the most unpleasant Monday in recent memory.

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Sunday night:

Mushroom pizza on homemade crust (my first attempt - not bad, but needs tweaking)

Last night:

Oven-fried chicken breasts (from a Cooking Light recipe - breading consisted of toasted panko, finely chopped walnuts, chopped fresh rosemary, and shredded parmesan)

Steamed broccoli and cauliflower

A sauv blanc that wasn't very good - I normally don't drink during the week, but yesterday was the most unpleasant Monday in recent memory.

Sorry you had such a bad day..hope your rest of the week goes better.

How was the fried chicken? I noticed that recipe to try as well; I just haven't had the chance to purchase all the ingredients.

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Sorry you had such a bad day..hope your rest of the week goes better.

How was the fried chicken? I noticed that recipe to try as well; I just haven't had the chance to purchase all the ingredients.

Thanks, hon! It is slowly getting better.

The chicken was actually delicious - I was afraid it was going to come out dry (fake frying often does), but the meat stayed really moist and the breading crisped up just enough to have a little bit of that satisfying crunch. The flavor was really good, too - you could really taste the cheese, the rosemary, the walnuts, even the mustard.

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Leftover Sweet potato chard gratin

Macaroni and cheese

I added some cream cheese (a couple of ounces) to the cheddar for the mac and cheese, and the texture and taste bore a remarkable resemblance to Stouffer's frozen mac and cheese (one of my guilty pleasures :lol: ).

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This has become a favorite quick meal for me.

Naan-Flatbread-Pizza

pre-heat the oven to 400 with a pizza stone in it.

we buy store bought naan (from Giant), for a "sauce" we use leftover pesto or tapenade, add some sauted veggies (mushrooms, onions, roasted red peppers etc.), top with whatever cheese we might have on hand.

slide naan on to the pizza stone and bake until edges of the naan are brown (approx. 10 minutes)

last night we topped with some salad greens we are growing

post-44-127428401896_thumb.jpg

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Baguette with butter

Swordfish Provençale (a la Julia)

Asparagus with butter and toasted hazelnuts

The fish was to die for...really, to die for. I had flagged it in Mastering the Art as a tuna recipe (but it said tuna or swordfish). At the fish counter, I saw tuna from Sri Lanka and ~$5 cheaper swordfish from NJ, so I went with the swordfish. This was just amazingly good. Wow.

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I grilled mahi-mahi with paprika and garlic, and made an arugula mix salad with classic French vinaigrette.

GennaroE -- the best tenant ever, pretty much -- made corn and baby shrimp risotto. He made the corn stock, sautéed pancetta, the kernels, and the shrimp, and made a roasted red pepper vinaigrette to drizzle over top.

I worked 13 hours today without a break. I'm still working now (I love the docs, but I just can't keep up with their 36-hour days). This was pretty much the best meal I could have imagined.

Darthjim did the dishes. :lol:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leleboo/sets/72157623973330593/

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Dinner tonight was a slice of toasted Attwater's sunflower/flax bread and a bowl of WF salsa eaten with a spoon while on the phone for *2 hours* with Quickbooks tech support :lol: . Not exactly how I wanted to spend my Friday evening, although it was made better by the 2 glasses of "Le Petiot" Sauvignon Blanc (thanks Don!) and the fact that they actually fixed the seemingly intractable problem...at least for today.

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Thursday night:

Baguette and evoo for dipping

Turkey soup with swiss chard

Leftover swordfish Provençale

Last night:

Homemade white milk bread with butter

Salad of baby arugula, parsley, bacon, feta and radishes; vinaigrette

Bay scallops in brown butter cream sauce over spaghetti

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last night:

he: charcoal-grilled Eco-Friendly rib steak, so marbled and fatty that he actually cut away and didn't eat some of the fat (a first!)*

me: charcoal grilled burger, ground beef from The Butcher Shop at Westover Market, made into beef soft tacos at the table

rajas de poblanos

refried beans (La Costeña)

basmati rice

pico de gallo

grilled corn tortillas (Trader Joe's)

he: Pacifico

me: Bell's pale ale

*we have had an ongoing disagreement lo these many years: I do not like to eat a lot of fat, and he complains that I trim too much fat away when I am prepping meat before cooking. The steak was given to me to compensate me for something I bought from E-F that was unsatisfactory (goat stew meat that was essentially a bag full of silver skin-covered trimmings). The steak was not big enough to share, and too fatty for me anyway, so I grilled it for him without trimming any of the fat away. Good thing he's on Lipitor, is all I can say.

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Beet checkerboard pizza w/ Blue Ridge Dairy moz and homemade bacon. Mergherita pizza. Pizza w/ shrimp, chipotle, garlic confit, lime, cotija cheese, bacon, and spring onions.

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Mise en place for pizza: garlic confit, lime shrimp, Blue Ridge Dairy moz, cotija cheese, basil and herbs from my garden, beet and onions from the farmers market, San Marzano tomatoes, homemade hickory bacon... (not all destined for the same pizza, of course)...

29722_731815039684_5317785_41410910_1980810_n.jpg

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Saturday night:

Beef tacos with sirloin tips, vidalia onion bulbs, tomato, baby arugula, and sour cream

White Rice

Black beans

Last night:

Leftover bay scallops over spaghetti

Steamed asparagus with butter

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tzatziki and pita chips

roasted beet, cucumber and radish salad with orange vinaigrette

Stan's merguez sausage and chickpea stew with ripe poblanos

basmati rice

braised kale

rhubarb compote

Bell's pale ale

Zora, how do you always manage to make so many different dishes for one meal? I feel accomplished if I'm able to get a protein, veggie, AND starch all into one meal.

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Pan-seared halibut with oregano-lemon butter

Butter lettuce with roasted artichoke hearts, roasted cherry tomatoes, and a mustard-sherry vinaigrette

Not that I thought I'd ever want to eat again after the picnic, but this was excellent.

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Zora, how do you always manage to make so many different dishes for one meal?

The "secret" such as it is, is having a well-stocked pantry, a variety of stuff in the freezer, making things ahead--like roasting veg for another meal whenever I cook with charcoal, and working at home. I'd oven-roasted the beets the day before, made the rhubarb compote in the morning. The roasted ripe poblanos had been in in the freezer and were defrosted for rajas, which I'd made on Saturday. The merguez sausages had been in the freezer, garbanzos from a can, etc. etc. The stew cooked for about 1 1/2 hours, so did the kale--the accumulated prep was maybe 45 minutes.

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The "secret" such as it is, is having a well-stocked pantry, a variety of stuff in the freezer, making things ahead--like roasting veg for another meal whenever I cook with charcoal, and working at home. I'd oven-roasted the beets the day before, made the rhubarb compote in the morning. The roasted ripe poblanos had been in in the freezer and were defrosted for rajas, which I'd made on Saturday. The merguez sausages had been in the freezer, garbanzos from a can, etc. etc. The stew cooked for about 1 1/2 hours, so did the kale--the accumulated prep was maybe 45 minutes.

<bow>

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4639201910_f05f7da07a.jpg

Started with roasted golden beets and radishes, goat's milk ricotta*. Photo taken before being dressed with a vinaigrette.

4639204810_45882576c8.jpg

EcoFriendly poussin- pan-seared "under a brick" then finished in the oven. The chicken was rubbed with turmeric, paprika, saffron and s&p, and refrigerated for a day, uncovered. Finished with a glaze and drizzle of cherry gastrique.

Papardelle with morels, purple asparagus, white wine and gorgonzola.

*this is so easy to make-I bought the goat's milk planning to make chevre, but realized that takes a while, so I went with ricotta. Basically, you heat the milk and add acid-I used cider vinegar. Then drain/strain the curds and finish with melted butter and a scosh of baking soda. Season to taste. Delicious.

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EcoFriendly poussin- pan-seared "under a brick" then finished in the oven. The chicken was rubbed with turmeric, paprika, saffron and s&p, and refrigerated for a day, uncovered. Finished with a glaze and drizzle of cherry gastrique.

Just as I bow to Zora, I now bow to you. :lol:

I bought some EcoFriendly poussin at the Courthouse farmer's market on Saturday. Any tips? Why is "under a brick" in quotes? :D

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Just as I bow to Zora, I now bow to you. :D

I bought some EcoFriendly poussin at the Courthouse farmer's market on Saturday. Any tips? Why is "under a brick" in quotes? :blink:

Well, the brick is a foil-covered paver that I use to flatten or put pressure on foods as they cook-it's my cheapy cheap panini press :lol: . I spatchcocked the bird prior to searing in a pan with veg. oil. This worked really well to brown and crisp the skin. The bird finished in the oven at 425 degrees, rather quickly actually.

I forgot to mention just how delicious the poussin was. It was incredibly moist, and I will for sure be buying more at either a market or the store Bruce is at now.

I've been a farmers market patron for a few years now, but I tend to buy my proteins from the grocery or Costco. Finally, the rubber is meeting the road and I'm beginning to buy from the local meat producers. So far, I'm very happy with the products and am happy to support local farmers who raise animals in a healthy fashion. I don't know that I will never stock up at Costco again, but I'm trying to be more conscious about how much of my protein comes from meat. I'd like to eat less, but what I do eat, I want to be quality-driven and consciously done.

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Wedding soup with meatballs, escarole and little pasta stars.

Salad with leftover roasted beets, radishes and campari tomatoes-dressed with vinaigrette.

Frittata with pancetta, bell peppers, leftover potatoes and gouda.

Strawberry sorbet-macerated berries, balsamic, blue agave.

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EcoFriendly NY strip cooked in herbs from my garden and butter, swiss chard and sauteed baby yellow squash from the farmers market, biscuits made from whey left over from cheesemaking. A perfect meal. This steak was my first purchase from EcoFriendly: a revelation.

29722_733122998524_5317785_41463849_1727587_n.jpg

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