Pat

Last night we had leftover rice and mushroom casserole from the freezer that I perked up with extra sauteed shiitakes and garlic, plus canned tomato sauce. I added the leftover chicken drumsticks to the skillet with the rice to heat it all up. And we had a smoky tomato and white bean soup from A Dinner: A Love Story recipe. Easy, quick, and delicious. Tonight, a big salad, more of the soup, and leftovers of the rice casserole with some of the turkey meatballs that were left from the other night. Plus sourdough, toasted.

Turkey meatballs reheated with leftover eggplant involtini and spinach braised in chicken stock with Calabrian chili. Sourdough and raisin toast.

This morning there was a food service delivery truck (International Gourmet Foods) outside Pacci's. If they're getting food deliveries, they're close. However, the ABC hearings are still a way out, so I assume they're opening without a liquor license.

Last night was more salad; more sourdough and raisin bread; baked chicken drumsticks; baked potatoes with bacon, cheddar, and sour cream; and, steamed broccoli.

Last night I made the Apple Butter and Sage Pork Chops recipe again but just made one thick bone-in chop that we split. It was 1 lb., but it was the perfect amount for us to split, given that the bone was a fair amount of that weight. I also made the classic Mueller's baked mac and cheese recipe (which uses cornstarch instead of flour). That is always reliably good. I had cooked up a sheet pan of bacon a bit earlier, so our vegetable was brussels sprouts roasted in bacon fat. A little crumbled bacon went into the salad we had alongside. It was a good Sunday dinner.

Last night we had more salad, the last of the pain de campagne, toasted (it held up really well), and an old recipe I've always loved and hadn't made in a long time. It's a Donna Hay recipe that was in her book Flavours: Spaghetti with Lime and Rocket (aka arugula). I discovered it when it had been published in the Australian Marie Claire magazine and someone posted it to a mailing list I was on, probably in the late '90s. Finding the jarred marinated feta is the hardest part of this. It always seems to be a Danish product when I can find it. I was going to make my own knockoff yesterday when I finally located it in my neighborhood gourmet market (Wine & Butter). Last place I checked, too. This is the version Martha has on her website, which is basically the same as my original, except it has only US measures and specifies that the red pepper be mild. The original does not specify, and I've always used a hot red pepper and like it that way. (I use baby arugula rather than mature and don't shred it.) It does have a crazy amount of sodium, so I made a half recipe and went as light as I could (e.g., less prosciutto) and was careful about serving out my portion. There was a time I didn't have to worry about these things😩.

I made eggplant involtini last night. It came out really well. I put a couple skinless boneless chicken breasts into the marinara sauce in the casserole dish and cooked them along with the eggplant. It made a great one pan meal. We had this with leftover green beans, more salad, and sourdough bread

I just remembered the name of the business they have on that block: Motir.

It was brave of you to go and try this out. I pass it all the time and have not taken the plunge. When they were first doing the buildout (it was a barber shop on one floor and a tattoo parlor on the other), the online menu went even more all over the place than it does now. But, in that time period, I used to see someone in chef's whites on site. They have an actual chef. They narrowed down the menu and somehow got permissions for their alcohol requests (though they might have scaled back hours, not sure). The owners run a non-profit on the same block that provides services to low income people. My brain is not recalling the name of the business, but they had a bad fire a number of years ago. The restaurant seems to be part of their effort to build community. I love the concept and what they seem to be trying to do but have not stopped in yet.

The liquor license applications went up a while back. There is one government form still in the window and I didn't think to check what it was. A man in there today came out and talked to people outside. He's hoping they open by the end of next week.

There was still some of the coconut curry salmon left. The fish itself has been excellent, despite the sauce not being quite what I hoped. I reheated the remainder of it in a new sauce, which my husband loved. I did an impromptu take on my favorite vegetable dish from the late Red Sea in Adams Morgan, collards with spiced cottage cheese, more an homage than anything faithful. (I can never remember the name of the dish, but I'm seeing it called Ayib Be Gomen, so I guess that's what it is.) I made it with spinach, which I simmered in the last of the coconut milk I had open, with the (mostly drained) cottage cheese, and a couple splashes of heavy cream. I seasoned it with berbere and a pinch of hot pepper flakes. Once that was well along, I put the remaining salmon into the saute pan, curry powder side down, so the curry also seasoned the sauce. It all simmered together for a while. The timing was basically that I wanted to make sure I lifted it out before the fish fell apart, and I managed it. There was a little too much liquid (again, but probably due to the lite coconut milk being thin), but it was delicious. I made myself a salmon patty with the excess pieces of salmon I'd previously broken into chunks to use in tacos. That was also excellent. Curry powder on salmon is really good. I would probably never have come up with that myself. We had this with toasted Pain de Campagne and green beans amandine

Last night was guacamole and tortilla chips, salad (green leaf lettuce, cucumber, grape tomatoes, red onion, radishes, and Marcona almonds), leftover stuffed mushrooms, and stuffed focaccia. I sliced the last of the herb focaccia horizontally and topped the inner halves with sauteed button mushrooms, salami, fresh basil, and goat cheese and drizzled with evoo. Then I put them back together. Pressed the bread down panini-style with a bacon press, wrapped tightly in foil, and heated in a 425 oven for 20 minutes. It came out pretty well, except cutting through it was complicated a bit by the salami slices. Maybe a pizza cutter would have been better than a knife. It was a reasonably successful experiment.

It took a lot longer to make a taco spread for dinner than I counted on. So much for planning an easy meal out of leftovers It didn't even use all the leftovers 🤷‍♀️. And I made a ton of guacamole for some reason. I hope it keeps a few days. Chicken Tacos Salmon Tacos Cilantro, radishes, Frontera tomatillo salsa, chopped tomato, chopped scallions, guacamole, sour cream, and flour tortillas Brown Rice Pinto Beans

I made the Chicken and Vinegar again last night, same as last time except for going to the full 6 Tbsp. vinegar. It was a bit too much. I'll be sticking with 4 Tbsp. in the future, but this recipe is a keeper. We had it with leftover brown rice, Pain de Campagne from Ravenhook, and cornbread stuffed mushrooms. I'm not even really sure what I did with the mushrooms--a little of this, a little of that. I was trying to use the rest of some bacon cornbread that had been in the fridge for some time, most recently just as crumbs I was adding to things. That wasn't using enough, so I decided it would make a good mushroom stuffing, just large white mushrooms from Costco. The most daring addition was pickled jalapenos. They didn't come through as a distinct flavor and blended with everything else, so I guess I used the right amount.

Tonight was leftover fettuccine, herb focaccia from the Ravenhook stand at Eastern Market, and a salad (green leaf lettuce, grape and pear tomatoes, sliced red onion, cucumber, radishes, Marcona almonds, and croutons made from the last of the baguette).

I made a version of this Coconut Curry Salmon last night. I omitted the garlic butter sauce, which seemed like gilding the lily (and a lot of extra fat), but I added some garlic into the sauce with the ginger. The Costco fillet I had was 1 3/4 lbs, so I coated and broiled the whole thing for 5 minutes and then cut half of it and put in the sauce. Will do something else with the mostly cooked other half (or maybe finish it in the remaining sauce, which I kept). I scaled back the sauce ingredients (largely due to the enormous amount of sodium) but went a little too hot on that. It was still good, but the consistency was wrong. That was probably because I used lite coconut milk instead of the full fat called for. While I like the concept of the recipe, and it mostly came out well, it wasn't a raging success. Some of this is obviously because I deviated from the recipe. It was very pretty on a platter, garnished with cilantro. We had this with yet more baguette, leftover brown rice, and baked sweet potato.

Leftovers tonight (salad, curried spinach and tofu, more baguette) plus newly cooked brown rice. My husband also had some Costco lobster bisque.

Years ago (like close to 40), I used to make a version of Fettuccine Alfredo with sour cream that I saw a recipe for somewhere. Then I began adding some vegetables to it for a hybrid Alfredo primavera. I had not thought of it or made it in many years and recently got the urge to make it. Apparently I never saved a copy because I could not find the recipe anywhere in my files. So I browsed some recipes online and relied on my memory for the rest. It came out really well! I used peas, two colors of carrots, and broccoli. I had heavy cream so used that in a 1:2 ratio with the sour cream. I tried to go as light as I could on the super heavy fats and managed to get the right amount and consistency of sauce. I garnished it with parsley and toasted sliced almonds. (I always used the almonds for the primavera.) We had this with a baguette and butter and a big green salad.

We had stuffed portobellos tonight, roughly based on this recipe. The filling was ground turkey, seasonings (garlic, cumin, dried oregano, cayenne, chili powder, ancho chile powder, and sweet paprika), and Trader Joe's Autentica Salsa. The original recipe called for 14 oz. of crushed tomatoes. I only had a larger can and didn't want to open it, so went to the salsa, which matched the flavor profile of the seasonings. It was in the refrigerator and mostly full (probably 10 - 11 oz.) I added a couple of ounces of water to the jar to clean it out and get closer to the right amount of liquid. Stuffed mushrooms were served with leftover brown rice and garnished with minced celery leaves. This was spicy--very good and definitely spicy. The rest of the meal was chickpea salad, pita from Yellow, and caramelized onion hummus from Little Sesame. Two totally different cuisines but it made for a great meal.

I love putting together meals like that. And it feels virtuous making sure nothing gets wasted. Last night I made a recipe from the Dinner: A Love Story blog. For some reason I had stopped reading it in recent years, but I've always found solid recipes there. This Chicken and Vinegar was delicious. I made about half a recipe (which was 4 thighs). I only used one onion but kept the other sauce ingredients the same, except for using only 4 Tbsp. vinegar. Instead of making a kale salad, I chopped up half a bunch of kale I had and tossed that into the pan right at the end for a few minutes, along with a generous splash of chicken broth. I had the broth out to prepare the brown rice that accompanied the chicken, and it upped the amount of liquid in the dish by just the right amount. We also had sourdough whole wheat bread.

Last night was salad (iceberg lettuce, hard-boiled eggs, cucumber, plum tomatoes, and red onion), whole wheat sourdough and Kerrygold butter, and a sausage and kale soup with gnocchi.

Last night we had leftover pot roast, a meal I apparently didn't note here when I first made it a few days ago. It was a 4 lb. piece of chuck from Costco that had been in the freezer for a while cooked in the InstantPot with yellow carrots and various aging potatoes. (Basically this recipe, adjusted for the size of the roast.) The broth was really good. I reheated it with some peas and riso pasta added. We had this with whole wheat sourdough bread from Le Pain Quotidien and salted Kerrygold butter, as well as a salad (iceberg, hard-boiled eggs, cucumber, plum tomatoes, red onion, and Marcona almonds) with TJ's fig balsamic vinaigrette.

I mostly go to Cameo for coffee and Slice Joint for pizza, but I like the Red Apron as well. They have a bodega with breakfast tacos, etc. early in the day but I haven't tried that. It's a pretty good mix of places. Lots of people camp there during the day working on their computers. Definitely a notable addition to the Hill. (I have trouble with my phone, vision, and QR codes, so that aspect can be a problem for me. I've had no problem getting an employee to use their Toast app terminals to order me a pizza, though.)

Last night: Spaghetti squash casserole with turkey meatballs & leftover sauce from braised turkey thighs; grated Parmesan Leftover mac and cheese

For New Year's Eve: Cornbread Endive Spears with White Bean Radicchio Salad Instant Pot Braised Turkey Thighs Rice Pilaf New Year's Day Dinner: Cornbread Collards with Black-Eyed Peas and Salt Pork Macaroni and Cheese I used some cornbread crumbs to top the mac and cheese. The cheeses were Vault No. 5 Cheddar from Jasper Hill Farm, the last of a piece of Port Salut, and a few oz. of Monterey Jack left from making nachos a few days ago. It was a really good, melty combination. The Port Salut stood out just enough to give it a distinctive flavor. I will have to remember that one. Did the collards and peas in the InstantPot. I used 2 bunches of collards and probably should have only used 1-to- 1 1/2. I made the turkey thighs for NYE that I couldn't find for Thanksgiving. Whole Foods now has a bountiful supply. Go figure 🤷‍♀️. This was the recipe. The sauce was too good to discard and there's quite a bit left, so I'm going to use it over some spaghetti squash later in the week, I think.