Pat

Last night was an omelette filled with the last of the creamed spinach and mushrooms, baked potato, and toast.

Tonight is bucatini with hot Italian sausage, mushrooms, and Rao's caramelized onion marinara. We're also having a big salad and a baguette.

Thanks for the review! I pass this place a lot too, and I love causa.

Pre-prepping the main part of dinner worked out well, time-wise. We had cinnamon rosemary pork chops, along with asparagus with lemon butter, leftover roasted potatoes, and sourdough bread.

That pork chop recipe is excellent. I've found, after making it a bunch of times, that plain whole milk yogurt works better in the marinade than Greek. It needs that little bit of extra liquid.

I picked up a smallish piece of brisket (just under 2 lbs.) at Safeway recently and decided to cook it in the InstantPot, using this recipe from The Kitchn*. I roasted some multicolored fingerling potatoes to go with it and reheated the leftover creamed spinach, mushrooms, etc., I'd made the other night for some vegetables. Really good meal, but even with the IP, we ate later than I wanted. I prepped tonight's dinner before starting the brisket and that was a planning error 😑.

*On a complete side note, I really do not like the current buzzfeed-y kind of website they have. I feel like the site is less useful than it used to be, but I can still occasionally find something there. It's probably all SEO driven and I'm the wrong market. Maybe it's just me?

I cut the remainder of the striata baguette into 4 slabs and made Italian bread pizza. I drizzled the slabs with some oil and lightly toasted them in the oven as it was heating to 400, while I blanched baby spinach and sauteed enoki and sliced King Trumpet mushrooms with some garlic.

Two of the slabs were topped with the last of the shredded rotisserie chicken breast, the greens, most of the mushrooms, and some of the garlic. Crumbled queso fresco, a couple spoonfuls of whole milk ricotta, and grated Parmesan went on top, along with a chiffonade of basil. The other two got coated with a bit of TJ's jarred pizza sauce, then sliced pepperoni and the remainder of the mushrooms and garlic. I drizzled a little more sauce over that. They were topped with shredded mozzarella and grated Parmesan, plus basil.

I managed to get a nice variety of ingredients on these without overloading the pizzas. Toasting the bread a little in advance helped prevent sogginess too.

We had this with an iceberg salad with cucumber, tomatoes, olives, carrots, and cornichons.

I had taken some D'Artagnan Green Circle chicken leg quarters out to thaw a few days ago and then realized I had to use them . So I made them in the air fryer last night, seasoned with some salt and pepper and dredged in a light coating of flour; 35 minutes at 380 and they were just right.

I served them with pan vegetables. This started with a mirepoix, and once those (that?) had sauteed, I added chopped garlic and diced jalapeno to the pan. Mushrooms went in next: soaked dried button mushrooms and some fresh Enoki, King Oyster, and Maitake. (The fresh ones were from a Costco gourmet pack. I have plenty left to use--soon, now that the package is open.) Last vegetable in was chopped frozen spinach. I boiled it for a couple minutes and squeezed out excess liquid so I didn't add too much extra water. Once that shrank down in the pan, I splashed in some white wine to cook off. Near the end of the cooking time, I stirred some heavy cream into the mixture and adjusted the seasoning, which was basically salt and pepper.

I made a big salad, enough to last for a few days: iceberg and frisee, cucumber, carrots, celery, red onion, olives, cornichons, and queso fresco. We also had cups of soup. My husband had NE clam chowder from WF prepared foods and I had the remnants of our old cod and lentil meals turned into a little fish soup. There was bread and butter as well (striata baguette from Radici).

This is vintage Don Rocks right here ⬆️ 😎

I hardly ever watch Food Network anymore,  but I still occasionally look through the recipes on the site. I made this Chicken Parmesan Casserole from there last night. It was quite successful. I used WF rotisserie chicken, though it would be cheaper to use a Costco one. It used to be I'd make recipes like this all the time, but it seems like I don't make anywhere near as many casseroles as I used to. We had this with salad and sourdough bread.

Air fryers are great for chicken. Congratulations on your acquisition🙂

We've been having leftovers interspersed with new meals. A few days ago I made a teriyaki pork tenderloin and served it over a prepared miso mushroom noodle bowl from Foxtrot (without their dressing), along with broccoli and pineapple chunks. Fairly quick meal (due to the, uh, "semi-homemade" part and advance marinating of the pork) and really delicious. I took a few photos but they don't really look as good as this was.

Last night I cooked up some sausages I'd bought at Stachowski's in Georgetown earlier in the week. They were Thai chicken, with green chilies, mint, and basil. They had started to thaw a little bit by the time I got them home and, since I was planning on making them soon, I put them in the meat drawer of the fridge instead of the freezer. Took them out yesterday only to notice "Keep frozen" on the package. Oops. Since they're uncooked (but vacuum-sealed), they were basically a slab of sausage instead of separate links. So I cooked them like loose sausage in a scorching cast iron pan while cooking up some white rice and roasting poblanos. I stuffed the peppers along with a mixture of the rice and sausage and topped each with a piece of sharp cheddar. Then I put them back in the oven until the cheese melted. Very good. We had them with a side salad.

I baked cod last night (lemon, s + p, smoked paprika) and served it over leftover lentil salad and coconut rice, with broccoli on the side. Salad and sourdough bread.

Last night we had hamburgers on whole wheat buns and Latin American green lentil salad, a recipe from Michael Natkin's Herbivoracious.

Tonight is leftover bbq chicken thighs, coconut rice, and boiled broccoli with nutritional yeast.

Friend is looking for recs for friends visiting. Preferably in DC proper.

Last night was hamburgers plus a big salad and leftover coconut rice with peas and carrots.

46 minutes ago, dcandohio said:

Fresh market had nice looking tuna steaks on sale. I crusted one with black pepper and a Yuzu seasoning I bought at an Asian store. I seared it rare and sliced it, and served it with mashed potatoes and sautéed cabbage. Weird combination, maybe, but it was what I wanted!

I love seared tuna! That sounds great.

Last night was pasta again. I had an eggplant I couldn't decide what to do with. I landed on this recipe I'd saved a while ago, in part because I had all the ingredients except fresh basil (which, of course, I forgot to buy yesterday...). The eggplant wasn't exactly evenly diceable after being roasted, but this worked out pretty well. In lieu of fresh basil, I added some Penzey's pasta sprinkle into the puree before assembling everything. I baked it at 375ish instead of broiling rather than searching for a casserole dish that could go under the broiler.

We had this with sourdough bread and a salad of gem and iceberg lettuces, avocado, tomato, hard-boiled eggs, and bacon, with a bottled creamy Italian dressing.

The one that's supposed to be opening at Mass and 3rd NE keeps showing progress but is not yet open. Just thought I'd toss that out there.

Dinner last night was Garlic Butter Creamed Spinach Salmon with coconut rice. Both dishes were pretty efficient to make, which was necessary because...

I also made this meyer lemon poppy cake from the SF Chronicle for dessert [gift link]. It's amazing how long it's been since I baked anything. I used to bake something at least biweekly. It came out pretty well, given how rusty my baking chops are. We also had some black cherry chocolate chip ice cream, which was a nice pairing.

We had turkey burgers last night, on whole wheat buns, with iceberg lettuce, tomato, banana peppers, and pepper jack cheese. There was also salad and leftover potatoes with mushrooms.

My secret ingredient in turkey meatballs and burgers is Cava harissa. Shhhh.

We had chicken and potatoes last night, along with chips and 7 layer dip. The latter was a nod to Super Bowl food. I usually try to time dinner for halftime but missed the mark yesterday, so we ate during the 2nd quarter.

I drew lightly on a Food 52 recipe for the chicken and used a Smitten Kitchen recipe (Crispy Potatoes with Mushrooms) for the other. While the chickpeas and dates element of the chicken recipe looked appealing, I wasn't really up for the additional work. I'll circle back to the recipe at some point and make the whole deal. I coated the drumsticks in a dip I had bought that was tahini and Calabrian chile pepper, supplemented with some extra tahini, lemon juice, smoked paprika, and TJ's Spicy Honey Sauce. They were delicious.

I also added some smoked paprika to the potatoes, though I followed the recipe fairly closely otherwise. I used a mix of cremini and button mushrooms and had just enough still-fresh dill for that element. For the first time I can recall, sliced potatoes I hadn't par-boiled came out the way they were supposed to. I imagine it's because they were laid out on a sheet pan rather than layered in a casserole.

I used to make Mardi Gras Pasta* every year right around this time but it's been years since I did it. It was what was for dinner last night, along with sourdough bread and a salad of baby lettuces, Campari tomatoes, and feta. I used boneless pork loin chops I'd gotten on sale instead of cutting up a small pork loin roast, and it was less than the amount of meat called for. I also typically use more than the amount of meat listed, so it was a less meaty sauce than I usually make for this. Still delicious. The cinnamon and almonds in the sauce really make this dish.

*PASTA  DI CARNEVALE (Mardi Gras Pasta) from Mimmetta Lo Monte's Classic Sicilian Cooking_ (Simon & Schuster, 1990)

2 hours ago, MsDiPesto said:

I was bad and made myself a Patty Melt last night. I will atone today. 

Patty melts rule. No atonement necessary.

Last night was leftover French Garlic Soup with rye croutons; baby kale salad with citrus, radishes, and feta; and, habanero cheddar cheesesteak sandwiches on jalapeño cheddar focaccia.

I had some extra mayo from making the soup and used it on the bread for the sandwiches. That is the best mayo I think I've ever made.

Tonight will be leftover salad and leftover pork roast over sweet potato puree.

We had roasted cauliflower and cheese ravioli from TJ's with roasted cauliflower florets and a butter sage sauce last night, along with salad and jalapeno cheddar focaccia (from Safeway).

Tonight was wedge salad (bleu cheese for me; feta for him) and chicken fettuccine Alfredo with peas.

On 2/2/2024 at 8:24 AM, dcandohio said:

That is, indeed, very pretty.

Thanks ☺️.

Last night I made chicken vegetable soup with homemade chicken stock. I used some more of the stock to cook pearl couscous. For serving, the couscous was mixed with sauteed garlic, red onion, and red pepper, and roasted broccoli with nutritional yeast. We had some Atwater's rye bread from the freezer along with this.

I made this* delicious Rosemary Garlic Pork Shoulder with Sweet Potato Purée last night. It's written to be flexible and flexible I was.  Even though I'd read over the recipe several times, I still didn't allow enough time to rub the meat with the rosemary mixture in advance, so it went in the oven pretty much right after the rub went on. I can't say it didn't make a difference, since I haven't tried it the other way, but it didn't seem to hurt anything.

My pork shoulder was 3 1/3 lbs. boneless (on sale at WF) and 1 large sweet potato was 1.6 pounds. (The sweet potato was cut in rounds but I split the largest pieces into half moons.) I used homemade chicken stock to surround it as it cooked. It roasted (on the convection setting of my oven) at 325F for about 2 hours and then rested for almost half an hour before slicing. I cooked it to an internal temperature of 168F, which was a little higher than I was aiming for, but it was cooked just right inside after resting.

One addition I made was to top the exposed potato purée with canned pinto beans that heated during the resting period. I used most of a drained 15.5 oz. can. I served this with applesauce on the side and herb focaccia. It all looked pretty.

*The recipe is from a blog I have a paid subscription to, but there's a note it can be shared, so I dug around to find the sharing link. The way(s) online recipe sharing and the protocol around it keeps changing, I'm always wondering if I'm doing it right or I'm stuck in the past.