dcandohio

Having no plans yesterday, and no one to please but myself, I made pasta with sausage and spinach. Well, it was going to be sausage and broccoli rabe. But the grocery store that is within walking distance did not have broccoli rabe, so I subbed spinach. There will be leftovers for lunch today.

Fresh market had really beautiful tuna steaks on sale. I cut one into two pieces and coated the outside with cracked black pepper, salt, black sesame seeds, and cayenne. I quickly seared all sides on a cast-iron skillet while the broccoli was steaming. This is such an incredibly quick and nearly fancy dinner. I would’ve liked potatoes or rice as well, but I just did it bother.

Deviled eggs, with capers, instead of my traditional pickle relish. Greek style salmon, with lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, dill and oregano. Served over sautéed spinach with Greek lemon potatoes. An apple and berry croustade from fresh market.

I had 1 quart of crawfish stock in the freezer from last year’s crawfish boil, and I had brought back a pound of frozen Louisiana farm raise crawfish tails when I visited at Christmas. So last night was crawfish étouffée and a big colorful salad. To start, we had homemade cheese crackers and prosciutto, and dessert was ice cream sandwiches, made with homemade chocolate pecan cookies. Such a fun meal to share with a friend who has recently moved into the area.

I had a craving for paprikash. I’ve been eating a lot of chicken lately, so I made it with some boneless pork chops. The meat was not as tender as I like, and I am sure that is the wrong cut for a dish like this, but the overall outcome was very tasty.

I am continuing the experiments with chicken Larb. Friends came over last night, and I made a batch which I served on rice, and they enjoyed it. I made the same peanut dressing with the larb sauce and served it on a colorful salad of red cabbage, shredded carrots, shredded romaine, and finely slivered red pepper. I prefer to serve the Larb on salad and to skip the rice. I’m definitely improving on the proportions, which seem to be approximately 2 1/2 parts of lime juice to 1 part each of brown sugar and fish sauce.

The leftover sauce from the larb made a fabulous Thai peanut salad dressing. Since it already had fish sauce, brown sugar, and lime, I added, peanut butter, water, garlic, and ginger. Soooo good! So out of something adequate came something very delicious! I will keep experimenting. Yes, the worst thing about the toasted rice is just having to stand there and watch it so it doesn’t burn. It’s a very easy thing to make, and so essential to larb.

Since I made a large quantity of toasted rice the last time I tried to make Larb, I attempted chicken larb again last night. I’m not getting the proportions of fish sauce, lime, and brown sugar quite correct. Each recipe has slightly different proportions, and I haven’t found one that quite tickles my taste buds. nevertheless, using ground chicken, this comes together very quickly. I served it on Romaine and a cruciferous salad from TJ’s I had in the refrigerator. I had also made some spicy, pickled cucumbers with Gojujang. It was definitely satisfying, but still needs tweaking.

I had some leftover stock, and so I added Asian type components (sesame oil, hot chili, oil, soy sauce, Penzey’s Singapore seasoning), diced leftover char siu pork, a few TJ’s chicken potstickers, and a big handful of spinach. It made a nice Asian-y sort of soup. And an excellent use of leftovers.

I found turkey breasts in the organic market that were halved. The price was right, so I bought two, and used butter and a liberal amount of one of the Trader Joe’s seasonings before I roasted them. I think I let them go a bit too long because they were kind of dry, but it was a nice meal with spinach and roasted potatoes. However, the curried turkey salad the next day was delicious! So note to self, when they are cheap, buy them, roast them, and make turkey salad.

I will have one free night in Nürnberg on a Friday. I will probably be staying close to the center of town, where I can easily get a taxi to my riverboat. Does anyone have any recommendations for a not too expensive restaurant that might showcase the cuisine of the area? Or just someplace fun? Thanks.

We are having a fairly severe cold snap for this part of the world, so I used the opportunity to make a pot of 15 bean soup. I had cut chunks of ham from a beautiful baked Christmas ham and had them in the freezer. The ham went into the beans with shallots, garlic, celery, thyme, parsley, basil and chicken stock. Perfect on a cold day.

The neighbors came for dinner last night after we had gone on an excursion to the outer suburbs to go to the Asian grocery store. I made a soup out of chicken stock, which I simmered with ginger and garlic, and then added five spice powder, white pepper, ponzu and soy sauce. Then I threw in bunches of bok choy, and mini chicken cilantro dumplings from Trader Joe’s. I also made chicken Larb, served on a salad of romaine and cabbage. I had made the toasted rice powder a couple of days ahead of time, and once you have that on hand, throwing larb together is really simple.

Last night my neighbors and I made Lithuanian farmers cheese from unpasteurized milk. It is a long process, but not extremely effortful. The curds have to drain for a while by hanging from a string, and then the cheese has to be weighted for about 10 hours. We used caraway seeds because that’s what my friend remembered from his childhood. It came out like a mild farmers cheese, with a consistency like goat cheese.

After a spell of very little cooking, and even less entertaining, friends came over after a theater matinee last night for an indoor picnic: Bloody Mary deviled eggs, Caprese skewers, curry chicken salad with slider rolls, lentil and artichoke salad, assorted Macarons from Trader Joe’s. I prepared everything in advance, so that when we arrived home from the theater, I just set out all of the platters, and everyone helped themselves.

I finally got around to making post Thanksgiving turkey noodle soup out of the leftover turkey, gravy, meat and stock. It was pretty simple, with carrots and celery, and Dutch egg noodles (Kluski brand). The stock was already highly seasoned, so it only required a little more sage and thyme, salt, and some Tabasco. It is still really too hot here to be appropriate for soup, but it was very enjoyable.

Another great vegan protein side dish is a French lentil salad. I make it with lots of garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, and tarragon. It’s actually better if it sits overnight, so you could make it the day before.

Taco Tuesday! I had chicken birria in the freezer, and I cooked up a batch of “gringo style” ground beef taco meat. Served both on hard shells (guest request) accompanied by quick pickled vegetables, curtido, and the usual accompaniments: cilantro, cheese, sour cream, jalapeños, lettuce.

We had a little bit of the early effects of hurricane Nicole last night, so my neighbors came over for dinner. Fortunately, my area did not take a direct hit. Portuguese sardine pate served with crudites and crackers. Baked tilapia topped with artichoke (mashed with lots of garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, breadcrumbs, basil, psrsley, good Parmesan cheese). Tillamook Coffee almond fudge ice cream. By the way, for the price, Tillamook ice cream is a very nice product.

https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/eat-drink/article_9acbb550-eda8-11ec-9b1c-eb73bc004667.amp.html Depending on how far from the beaten path you want to go, this Iraqi restaurant is plain but comfortable and clean, in a strip mall, and has some of the best food I’ve ever eaten in my life. It is in Metairie, which is between the airport and the city, so it would be a great stop either on your way from the airport into the city, or from the city back to the airport. I know they close one day a week, so check to make sure before you make a special trip. Checks the boxes of food not easily available elsewhere, and not expensive. No alcohol served.

I cut lengthwise. I like the idea of rings because I think they would cook faster. The halves took quite a while.

Last night I stuffed Delicata squash with the vegetables I had (garlic, onion, cabbage, carrots, celery), seasoned bread crumbs, thyme and grated smoked Gouda. I like the concept although I wasn’t thrilled with that particular blend. I may be inspired to try it again with beans and rice, or lentils and rice.

Have forgotten to report on a really good soup I made using hot Italian sausage, beef stock, and lots of vegetables. I had an open bottle of some kind of fancy bloody Mary mix and I put in about 3/4 of a cup of that. It really added a certain zing to the soup.

College football Saturday plus rain all day equals chili. I had leftover grilled flank steak in the freezer and that went in along with ground meat. I toasted three kinds of dried peppers and then soaked them and ground them up and use that as a flavoring.

The Snowbird neighbors were in town so I made a big pot of chicken birria. I looked at several recipes and followed the general method, even though most of the recipes call for beef. Delicious. I then made grilled Birria tacos. We started with a shrimp and mango ceviche.