Dinner - The Polyphonic Food Blog

[dcandohio]

Last night I was going to call and have something delivered, and then I thought about all of the inspiration that I get from the cooks on this site who put together delicious meals from what is in the refrigerator and the freezer. 
I had a small container of chicken gravy in the freezer, which I defrosted and thinned to make a soup base. I added ginger, garlic, coriander, and soy. I threw in a handful of shelled edamame, Romaine lettuce that was getting sad, celery and Trader Joe’s chicken cilantro mini dumplings. It made for a pretty tasty and very easy wonton style soup. 

[saf]

Last night was potato pancakes.  They were very delicious with applesauce and sour cream. Also breakfast sausage. Also salad. 

Tonight is a work on the freezer night. OK, the salad isn't from the freezer. But the green chili pork tamales are! Some day I will tame this freezer to the point that we can begin putting stuff in it again!

[Pat]

1 hour ago, saf said:

Some day I will tame this freezer to the point that we can begin putting stuff in it again!

I tell myself that too!. I occasionally free up small amounts of space but they're re-occupied very quickly.

Tonight:
Salad (romaine, cucumber, clementine segments, honey roasted peanuts, feta or blue cheese; vinaigrette)
Multigrain sourdough toast
Leftover beef stew
Leftover polenta plus sautéed mushrooms

[saf]

Just now, Pat said:

I tell myself that too!. I occasionally free up small amounts of space but they're re-occupied very quickly.

Some days I think about getting a small free-standing freezer. My parents have one, and it is very useful. But then I think about keeping it under control, and I stop myself.

[ktmoomau]

Last night I made pork carnitas for immediate consumption in tacos.  I also started a venison vegetable soup that I then put it in the fridge, which I will skim the fat, and finish doctoring it up tonight with some homemade corn bread. 

21 hours ago, saf said:

Some day I will tame this freezer to the point that we can begin putting stuff in it again!

We switched to a bottom freezer instead of a side by side for sheer storage capacity, etc.  But I have to say, it is so much harder to keep it organized, and I am pretty militant about freezer organization and use, but it is just a lot harder to visually see what I have at all times so I can use it.

[dcandohio]

I made a big sheet pan full of roasted vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, yellow squash, zucchini, onions, celery and carrots. I will use the vegetables over several days, but today I served them with sweet potatoes roasted with salt, pepper, and coriander; and salmon topped with a homemade mango chili glaze. 
Since it is cooler than usual here, I did not mind having everything in the oven for a while and everything was done all at once. 
I have lots of leftover vegetables and salmon. Hope that will reduce my prep and cooking over the weekend!

[Pat]

I pulled a boneless turkey breast out of the freezer a couple days ago, about 1 3/4 lbs., skin on. Tonight I made a roulade of sorts with it. It came out more like a stuffed turkey breast because I didn't get the rolling super tight, but it was really good. I made crumbs out of a couple of slices of TJ's multigrain sourdough bread and spread that over the salted and peppered breast that had been laid out flat and pounded. Then I topped that with a broccoli pistachio pesto that was somewhat based on this Smitten Kitchen recipe. (It was the only broccoli pesto recipe I could find that didn't call for fresh basil. Since I had plenty of broccoli but no fresh greens left, I thought making a pesto out of it to spread on the turkey was a good idea and hunted around for a guide.) After my best effort at rolling, it roasted on a sheet pan at 375 for just over an hour on a layer of red onion slices.

The rest of the meal was leftovers: macaroni and cheese (plus bacon), leftover braised kale (plus bacon), and leftover cauliflower with tahini sauce, capers, raisins, and pine nuts.

[saf]

6 hours ago, ktmoomau said:

We switched to a bottom freezer instead of a side by side for sheer storage capacity, etc.  But I have to say, it is so much harder to keep it organized, and I am pretty militant about freezer organization and use, but it is just a lot harder to visually see what I have at all times so I can use it.

We have a freezer on the bottom in the kitchen. In the basement, we have a smaller fridge, freezer on top. I like the freezer on the bottom, but would enjoy having something easier to keep organized.

[Pat]

Camembert and assorted crackers
Porter-braised kielbasa with hot mustard and honey mustard
Riced sweet potatoes with brown sugar and molasses
Steamed broccoli

More kielbasa from NRG. Again came out great cooked in DC Brau's Penn Quarter Porter. Sweet potatoes were very sweet. I had thought the recipe looked like it would be good paired with the kielbasa and mustards.

[Katya4me]

We had some potatoes, sweet potatoes and 2 squash that had been sitting on a counter for a couple of weeks now.  So, we cubed them all up and did 3 trays of roasted veggies to eat this week.  While those were roasting, I made some spicy fried rice with leftovers.  I had an onion, half a steak, some bacon, 1 bok choy and a long green hot pepper in addition to 3-4 cups of cooked white rice.  Chopped all of those up, scrambled a couple of eggs with Sriracha and had a delicious dinner. 

[Pat]

Salad (romaine, cucumber, tomato, pimento stuffed olives, feta; vinaigrette)
Multigrain sourdough garlic cheese bread
Whole wheat spaghetti two ways

I cooked up a bunch of spaghetti and we had some of it with the last of the Iron Gate meatballs and sauce and other of it with some of the broccoli pesto I had left from the roulade, thinned with pasta cooking water.

Red and green spaghetti made a festive dinner to accompany watching A Charlie Brown Christmas🎄 😊

 

[weezy]

I pulled a pack of Thanksgiving leftovers out of the freezer to reheat and will steam up some broccoli and do a little lemon butter to go on that.  I know I'll be snacking on cookies at work, so no dessert tonight, maybe slice up a pear and sprinkle it with cinnamon and call it good.

[saf]

Last night we made pork chops with sautéed apples and onions. Made a gratin of fractal broccoli, cheddar cauliflower, and fennel. I didn't like it. Don't know why, it's just didn't come out right. The chops were good though. And the salad. And the garlic bread. So that was good.

Tonight we are planning on chicken and mushroom quesadillas. And salad.

[ktmoomau]

Last night was steak, roasted brussels and butternut squash with olive oil and balsamic, mixed with Anson Mills farro, topped with some feta.

The night before was some really good white wine sausages from Stachowskis with roasted broccoli and a white wine, lemon, garlic butter sauce with rice.  

This past weekend was pizza on the grill that we ate outside- jeez the weather has been very different today from the weekend, huh?

[Katya4me]

I felt like noodles last night, so I pulled a box of elbow noodles out of the pantry.  I'd made a batch of onion masala about a year ago and it was still in the freezer.  I took 6 of those out of the bag and put them in a skillet with some beef broth to defrost while the noodles cooked.  I added some chopped curly kale and half pound of ground beef from the freezer next and once it was cooked through, added the drained noodles.  I sprinkled it with some nutritional yeast and added a dollop of harissa.  I was pretty surprised when the taste of it gave me a strong hamburger helper vibe, but in a good way.  

[Pat]

Monday was mostly leftovers:
Leftover salad + clementine sections
Leftover broccoli pesto stuffed turkey roulade
Leftover sweet potato puree with whole berry cranberry sauce
Brussels sprouts gratin
Roasted green beans almondine

The green beans somehow froze in the produce drawer (nothing else did), so I got them as dry as I could and roasted them before proceeding. Roasting is usually a good way to cover imperfections with produce. The bechamel for the gratin was a little loose. I thought the recipe called for proportionately too much milk. At some point I thought it had thickened okay but the sprouts must have had too much water still on them from blanching because the sauce thinned out again.

I made a no-sugar cranberry sauce (just water, cranberries, and the peel of a clementine) and mixed it with the overly sweet leftover sweet potatoes. It would have been better if they hadn't been so sweet to begin with, but this was the second time around for making a cranberry sauce to balance the leftovers. It definitely works. Can't argue with success.

Last night was freezer meat:
Salad (green leaf lettuce, campari tomatoes, cucumber, radishes; vinaigrette)
Bisquick sausage balls
D’Artagnan beef strip loin with mushrooms and greens*
Buttermilk mashed potatoes
Leftover mac and cheese
*Sautéed radish greens with black vinegar, mirin, garlic, and sesame seeds

The sausage and steak were from the freezer. The steak was delicious. I sauteed it on the stove in cast iron and then topped with the mushrooms and greens. The radishes came with a delivery and I wanted to use the greens quickly while they were in great shape.

Tonight was pretty low-fuss:
Carrot muffin
Spicy mustard thyme turnover
Pork tenderloin with gold rush apples, dried cherries, apricots and prunes
Leftover brussels sprouts gratin
Leftover mashed potatoes

The muffin and turnover are favorites from Souk. They haven't had fresh bread in a while now, and I hadn't realized how much I'd gotten used to it. They're apparently looking for a new bread baker. In the meantime, their pastries, muffins, etc., are still stellar. I reheated the sprouts and potatoes together in a gratin dish in the oven, making a nest in the center of the potatoes for the cheesy sprouts. Worked nicely.

The pork marinated all day in apple cider, cider vinegar, liquid aminos, garlic, mustard, and honey.

 

[saf]

Taquitos last night. Also salad. And of course, much guacamole.

Corn chowder out of the freezer tonight. Also, salad.

[Pat]

Tonight:
Sourdough bread and seasoned evoo
Chicken cordon bleu
Leftover green beans almondine
Leftover mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts gratin
Leftover sausage balls

The bread was from a Whole Foods order. I seemed to recall they had decent sourdough but this was really flat. I really have to get back to baking bread. I used to bake so much but I just don't any more...The mashed potato nest for the sprouts was a repeat winner. The chicken was the only new thing I made. Came out pretty well. It used the last of some black forest ham from TJ's (which, in combination with needing to think of chicken recipes, was the motivation for the dish).

Last night:
Leftover sausage balls
Pretzels and mustards
Buffalo chicken drumsticks
Steamed broccoli
Leftover mac and cheese

Pretzels came from the Pretzel Bakery, one of the small businesses I keep trying to patronize. We can only eat so many pretzels, though...

I baked the drumsticks coated in seasoned flour the way I do wings sometimes and then tossed them with a modified (i.e., light on the butter) wing sauce I make with Frank's. (Lime juice is my secret ingredient. 🤫)

[Pat]

Still making our way through leftovers: brussels sprouts gratin, sweet potatoes and cranberries, and macaroni and cheese (fin!).

The new item on the menu was a casserole I put together from kale, chicken breast, basmati rice, and cremini mushrooms. Also featuring evoo, onion, garlic, milk, cottage cheese, grated Parmesan, flour, s+p/hot pepper flakes/dried thyme and oregano. Near the end of the baking time I topped it with more Parmesan, homemade whole grain bread crumbs and chopped toasted cashews. This was pretty good for being what it was and used a bunch of things I had on hand. It, however, didn't even consume half my big bunch of curly kale. A different nut would probably have been better than cashews, but I had the cashews out and ready to go.

[Pat]

Pasta dinner last night:
Sourdough bread and seasoned evoo
Green leaf lettuce, Campari tomatoes, radishes, and cucumber; vinaigrette
Braised chicken and mushroom ragu over pipe rigate

The pasta is from Joy the Baker. I've made it a number of times before. My husband really likes this one. This time the sauce didn't seem quite as red; it somehow seemed different. Tasted the same, though, so far as I recall. I usually put more chicken in than it calls for but didn't this time, and that may be the difference.

[Katya4me]

Last night was yaki udon, but with shrimp instead of pork.  I think I should have tried to get the shrimp a bit drier before sautéing them with the other ingredients, but otherwise I really liked how it turned out.  I had a napa cabbage in the drawer, so used that and baby carrots instead of a medium carrot.  Dessert was Ghiradelli brownies from a mix with a scoop of eggnog frozen custard.

[saf]

Takeout over the weekend - Beau Thai and Red Rocks.

Last night was salad, and beef stroganoff made with leftover london broil from the freezer, and delicious nameko mushrooms on egg noodles. Well, mustard, and onions, and sour cream too. And a splash of wine.

Tonight is salad. And artichoke dip.

I have started to work on things for Christmas snacks and dinner. Tonight I am making the chicken liver. That's one of the snacks.

Also, one of my pandemic projects was cleaning and organizing the bar. Found a bottle of cloudberry liqueur. Also the end of a bottle of chambord. So I finished the chambord making chambord and cheap fizzy wine cocktails. Now, I am doing that with the cloudberry, and it is delicious.

[Pat]

I have been craving onion rings something fierce. Whenever I make them from scratch, I can't keep the breading on right, and I just wanted bar food onion rings. So I added some to a Giant order today and baked off the whole bag. I had some with ranch and others with ketchup, because I couldn't recall what I usually do🤨. Ketchup was better. I had more of the mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts gratin too because that's the obvious accompaniment to onion rings.

I also reheated the leftover pork tenderloin and fruit. My husband had some of everything. Oh, and I made him a small dessert of clementine sections with creme fraiche and pieces of a kit kat bar.

[saf]

2 minutes ago, Pat said:

I have been craving onion rings something fierce. Whenever I make them from scratch, I can't keep the breading on right, and I just wanted bar food onion rings. So I added some to a Giant order today and baked off the whole bag. I

Ooooh. Onion rings are my VERY favorite. (With battered fried mushrooms a close second.) But I want the thin ones, with batter. I haven't had those in so long.

My craving this week was an Italian sub. I don't know why, but my salad has been smelling like a sub to me for, like, the last week and half or so. It may be because I put herb paste in my salad dressing this week. So today, I had to go to the doc over in friendship heights. I stopped at Rodman's on the way back, always fun. Then at Vace, where I got a sub to bring home and split with the boy for lunch. So good.

So anyhow, how are the giant onion rings? Are they breaded or battered?

[Pat]

13 hours ago, saf said:

So anyhow, how are the giant onion rings? Are they breaded or battered?

These were thick cut and breaded. They were decent, but I enjoyed the first couple more than the subsequent ones. I was surprised at how many my husband scarfed down. I like to think I'm really more the onion ring consumer in the household . In short: They scratched the itch but weren't the best onion rings I've ever had.

[saf]

Quesadillas again today. Using up the end of the flour tortillas. Filled with cheese (duh), chicken, mushrooms, grilled poblanos from the freezer, and onions. With guacamole and sour cream and salsa. Also, salad.

[Pat]

I made a vat of jambalaya for tonight's meal. My husband had to take down the big stock/lobster pot from the upper cabinets and everything . It probably would have worked with a smaller pot but I wanted to give the ingredients space and didn't want to run the risk of spillover.

This featured two kinds of chicken (breasts and thighs), two kinds of pork (andouille sausage and tasso), and shrimp. It turned out that a good amount of the basmati rice sunk to the bottom of the pot so there's going to be more of that in the leftovers than we got tonight. I had gotten fish stock in a delivery from District Fishwife, so that was bulk of the liquid, plus water. (I considered chicken stock instead but figured, why not. The housemade fish stock added a nice depth to the stew and there were enough flavors it wasn't distinctly fishy.)

Dinner was basically this and a salad (green leaf lettuce, radishes, cucumber, clementine sections; vinaigrette).

[dcandohio]

Tilapia cooked in a foil packet, topped with chopped grape tomatoes that were looking very sad, wrinkly black olives, chopped; and Trader Joe’s Zhoug. Drizzled with olive oil. This is a very easy and full proof way to cook a mild fish. Served it with a simple green salad with a pomegranate balsamic vinaigrette. 

[Katya4me]

I felt like pizza yesterday, so my husband made up a batch of dough and we made 2 pizzas yesterday.  The dough makes enough for 3 pizzas.  Pizza #1 was topped with Italian sausage and mushrooms, while pizza #2 had ham and fresh pineapple on it.  Our Misfits order is scheduled to arrive today and includes apples.  If that occurs, then pizza #3 will be an apple and cheddar pie. 

[saf]

Freezer night! So, salad, not from the freezer, and artichoke pasta from the freezer. Rolls, also from the freezer.

I want to like it a lot more than I do. It's OK. The boy, who is not the biggest artichoke fan, thinks it is delicious.

[Pat]

On 12/23/2020 at 8:18 AM, Katya4me said:

If that occurs, then pizza #3 will be an apple and cheddar pie. 

If the combination works with regular pie, no reason it couldn't with pizza. I'd be interested in how that goes in practice.

We had pie last night: Steak, Mushroom, Onion, and Gruyere Pie from the Pie Shop on H Street. It was like a big pot pie. Reheating it made the kitchen smell real good.

Accompanying it was oyster stew using the shucked oysters we got from District Fishwife. Whole milk and half and half for the stew came from South Mountain Creamery.

The rest of the meal was shrimp cocktail, leftover sausage balls, and leftover onion rings. Oh, and there were oyster crackers for the stew. These are the little Premium brand ones. I used to love the big, jawbreaker OTC kind but they don't seem available any more. Last I checked they were still being manufactured but were just hard to find. Don't know if they're even made now.

[Pat]

Broiled honey ricotta-topped figs over cinnamon-raisin toast points
Leftover jambalaya
Blackened salmon and broccoli rabe

[reedm]

Christmas Dinner:

"Deconstructed Beef Wellington" for my wife and I. Individual Portobello Mushroom Wellington for our (vegetarian) daughter. 

Hasselback potato gratin

Green beans with almonds

Sticky toffee pudding

 

 

[Pat]

1 hour ago, reedm said:

 

"Deconstructed Beef Wellington" for my wife and I. Individual Portobello Mushroom Wellington for our (vegetarian) daughter. 

Looks great. What did you do about the peppercorns?

[Katya4me]

On 12/24/2020 at 10:23 AM, Pat said:

If the combination works with regular pie, no reason it couldn't with pizza. I'd be interested in how that goes in practice.

We had pie last night: Steak, Mushroom, Onion, and Gruyere Pie from the Pie Shop on H Street. It was like a big pot pie. Reheating it made the kitchen smell real good.

Accompanying it was oyster stew using the shucked oysters we got from District Fishwife. Whole milk and half and half for the stew came from South Mountain Creamery.

The rest of the meal was shrimp cocktail, leftover sausage balls, and leftover onion rings. Oh, and there were oyster crackers for the stew. These are the little Premium brand ones. I used to love the big, jawbreaker OTC kind but they don't seem available any more. Last I checked they were still being manufactured but were just hard to find. Don't know if they're even made now.

We ended up making it later, but it did taste very good and we'll do again in the future.

[saf]

Christmas dinner was salad, pork tenderloin with delicious creamy mustard sauce, potatoes duchess (simplified), creamed onion (for the boy), and rolls. Later there will be eggnog cheesecake with whipped cream. A nice Alsatian Pinot Blanc.

This afternoon there was a fizzy wine from Bully Hill, gougeres, cheese, crackers, and liver while we were part of a zoom open house. It was fun. 

We miss our usual crowd, but we do hope for next year.

[Pat]

I didn't want to make anything heavy and went for a variety instead, with several items along the lines of hors d'oeuvres.

Warm feta-stuffed dates
Shrimp cocktail
Crackers, cheeses, and nuts
Pastrami-rubbed short ribs
Roasted beets and sautéed beet greens and stems with balsamic glaze & creme fraiche
Green beans with bacon and French’s fried onions

The short ribs were a Jeff Mauro recipe from Food Network. They cook in a low oven for 4+ hours. My husband loved them. (I got impatient after 4 hours and turned the heat up to get them across the finish line.) Excellent short ribs from Harvey's at Union Market.

I didn't serve all the beets I roasted. I knew we'd only eat part of them. This not only included the beet stems but the remainder of the ones I still had from making rainbow chard at Thanksgiving and right after. In addition to the balsamic and creme fraiche, I scraped out the last bit of horseradish from a jar for my portion.

[reedm]

19 hours ago, Pat said:

Looks great. What did you do about the peppercorns?

I ended up just doing without--added a splash of red wine vinegar for acid, then seasoned the sauce generously. The result was delicious--I'll probably do it this way next time i'm in the mood for beef wellington. I burned the first batch of puff pastry circles--the directions called for 20 minutes, which is far too long.

I highly recommend the potato gratin recipe--they were easy to make, but my were they tasty!

(Didn't make the sticky toffee pudding yet)

 

[saf]

Welcome to leftover week, and the first Saturday without takeout in quite a while. Dinner of Christmas eve and Christmas leftovers. Cookies for dessert.

[Pat]

Salad of baby arugula, figs, pomegranate arils, and shaved Pecorino Romano; white balsamic vinaigrette
Baked pasta: leftover pipe rigate with chicken and mushroom ragu, topped with mozzarella, Pecorino Romano, Parmesan

I was just going to heat the pasta in the microwave but the sauce seemed a little skimpy and I had excess tomato paste in the fridge I wanted to use, so I rounded out the sauce a bit more (tomato paste/red wine/water), added cheese, and baked it at 375 for half an hour. There's still quite a bit left. The salad was fantastic.

[saf]

A new(ish) meal tonight! Salad, of course. Cream of mushroom soup (I had leftover mushrooms). Cornbread. It was tasty!

[Pat]

We've been eating mostly leftovers, supplemented with a few new things.

Sunday was odds and ends:
Leftover chicken stew
Leftover short ribs
Leftover steak pie
Leftover green beans
Leftover beets and greens

Yesterday:
Quesadilla (mozzarella, extra sharp cheddar, serrano and garlic; sour cream; cilantro)
Leftover baby arugula salad
Leftover Asian chicken salad + additional clementine
Leftover jambalaya; cilantro garnish

Tonight:
Baby arugula and baby beet salad, pomegranate arils, toasted slivered almonds, feta; white balsamic & beet vinaigrette
Leftover pasta
Baked broccoli and cheese sauce with toasted homemade breadcrumbs

I was planning on serving steamed broccoli with the pasta but realized the half and half I had was thisssss close to turning and needed to be used today. So I made a cheese sauce with that and some whole milk and made it into a casserole with the broccoli and breadcrumbs.

[Katya4me]

Back at the beginning of the year, I got about a dozen cans of Maesri's Thai curry pastes.  I was familiar with the red and green pastes, which we both really like, but got some others that I was totally unfamiliar with.  We used the leang curry paste for dinner last night: https://www.templeofthai.com/food/curry_paste/leang-2190031094.php.  

I sliced up 1/4 onion, a zucchini and the last of some Tuscan kale and sauteed them while I boiled 3 cups of water.  I added some dashi powder to the water, fresh udon noodles and then the curry paste.  Once the noodles were cooked, I added the veggies.  We had a bit of ham left, so I chopped that up and tossed it in as well.  

It was so spicy.  I ate all of my bowl, but did not drink the broth.  Shawn liked the heat level and the fact that it masked the flavor of the kale.  I'm glad I tried it, but I told him the leftovers are all his.

[saf]

18 hours ago, Pat said:

We've been eating mostly leftovers, supplemented with a few new things.

Sunday was odds and ends:
Leftover chicken stew
Leftover short ribs
Leftover steak pie
Leftover green beans
Leftover beets and greens

Smorgasboard night!

[naxos]

NYE

It’s been a year like no other and I decided to treat myself and Mr. to a caviar sampling. And then because I had just made chicken soup the day before, I decided to try my hand at pho. Of course it wouldn’t be authentic but I had all ingredients on hand and we miss our local pho dinners. And for dessert we were gifted a box of Mallomars which we microwaved to perfection-

 

 

 

 

[saf]

NYE was appetizer buffet here.

Mushroom caviar. Cheese. Nuts. Wine jam. Crackers. Shrimp cocktail. Deviled eggs. Gougeres.

Chocolate covered salted caramels for dessert. And a nice bottle of fizzy wine that a friend sent.

[Katya4me]

Tonight was spicy cheesy scalloped potatoes with broiled chicken thighs.  The potatoes were a new recipe and I enjoyed them.  

[dcandohio]

French green lentils marinated in a tarragon/Dijon vinaigrette. The lentils were piled on a salad tossed with the same dressing used to marinate the lentils. The main was braised chicken kale Italian sausage from the Fresh Market. Really nice change of pace for me. And since it was very warm here on New Year’s Day, having a big salad was perfect. 

[Pat]

I received another D'Artagnan order this week. One thing I like about ordering from them is that you can take advantage of whatever special they have and then order it to be shipped at any point in the next 30 days. One thing I am cautious about is ordering things that are frozen and expecting them to arrive in that state. That's why I skipped ordering anything over the summer.

This offer had been free shipping. Instead of next day, they shipped it FedEx 2-day. (It arrived one day earlier than I requested, which was understandable because of the holidays, but the 2-day in transit thing was more problematic). Everything still seemed cold enough, but the veal, which was the one freezer item, was 90%+ thawed. So, I rearranged my menus, and had veal the day after its arrival. So Wednesday through Friday was all D'Artagnan meats.

Wednesday
White bean salad with red onion and mint
Veal porterhouse steak with mushroom sauce
Bucatini with olive oil, black pepper, parsley, and prairie gold bread crumbs
Leftover broiled broccoli rabe

New Year's Eve
Saffron gougeres from Souk
Baby arugula salad with shaved Pecorino and pomegranate arils; ranch dressing
Braised lamb shanks and orzo (repeat of a winning Ina Garten recipe)
Leftover baked broccoli and cheese sauce

New Year's Day
Sweet potato, kale, and black-eyed pea soup
Jiffy cornbread pudding
Porcini-Crusted Pork Tenderloin

The pork was from a Post recipe. The soup was supposed to be from their database as well, but I realized I didn't like the recipe as written at all, so I just ran with the concept.

My husband got me a fancy Instant Pot for Christmas, and I've been trying that out in various applications, and I played around making the soup with it. Came out really well. The veal from that first meal was done sous vide in the Instant Pot and then I seared it.

 

[reedm]

1 hour ago, Pat said:

...sous vide in the Instant Pot...

 

I didn't know that was possible. How did you do it?