Dinner - The Polyphonic Food Blog

[lperry]

Risotto with red wine and dried porcini, topped with a crimini mushroom, red wine, balsamic, and honey "marmalade"

Roasted asparagus

Rouge d'hiver lettuce and mâche salad with a walnut oil, sherry vinaigrette and crumbled Humboldt Fog cheese

Cranberry upside-down cake

Feudi di San Gregorio Falanghina 2009

[LauraB]

Butternut squash and carrot stew with Moroccan spices

Served over Quinoa

[lperry]

Butternut squash and carrot stew with Moroccan spices

Served over Quinoa

That sounds really good and perfect for the weather. I should make more stews.

[Pat]

Monday night

Walnut-onion bread

Angel hair pasta with leftover Bolognese sauce

last night:

Salad (romaine, grape tomatoes, roasted jalapeno pecans, cheddar cheese, and croutons; vinaigrette)

Walnut-onion bread

Seared sea scallops over lemon mascarpone polenta

(My husband got the whole menu. I just had some scallops and the leftover half of a turkey "Rachel" sandwich from lunch.)

[DanielK]

Tonight:

Roast chicken

Latkes with homemade applesauce

Green beans

Donuts

Happy Hanukkah!

[LauraB]

That sounds really good and perfect for the weather. I should make more stews.

Stews and soups are my favorite way to cook in the fall and winter. And, according to Chinese medicine, the most beneficial way for us to consume our nutrients. This particular recipe came from Epicurious. I've made it many times in the last few years -- it's colorful, tasty and nutritious!

Dinner tonight: Leftovers from last night's stew. Still good!

[lperry]

Leftover porcini risotto made into crispy pan-fried cakes

Celery root and apple julienne (I cheated with the food processor) in rémoulade

Savoy cabbage and apple quickly braised in sweet butter

[LauraB]

Vegetable Curry:

Vegetables: broccoli, mushrooms, onions, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, fennel bulb

Spices: toasted yellow mustard seeds, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, turmeric, cayenne, fresh cilantro, fresh ginger

Additional: Coconut milk

Served over basmati brown rice

[Pat]

Last night:

Lipton onion soup dip and potato chips

Salad (romaine, grape tomatoes, cucumber, roasted jalapeno pecans; vinaigrette)

Walnut-onion bread

Baked penne with Bolognese sauce

Tonight:

Salad (romaine, grape tomatoes, cucumber, roasted jalapeno pecans, bacon; vinaigrette)

Walnut-onion bread

Spice-rubbed roast pork

Porky pecan cider rice

The roast was a pork loin rubbed with a mix of salt, ground black pepper, ground nutmeg, and ground Szechuan peppercorns and then drizzled with bacon fat before roasting . Keeping with that theme, the rice was taken from something on Jane Black's blog: pecans cooked in bacon fat and then rice added (pilaf style) to toast before adding apple cider. This came out really well and went great with the pork.

[Xochitl10]

Porky pecan cider rice

Love this name.

Marcella's Winter Meatballs with Savoy Cabbage

Asiago polenta

[Anna Blume]

All I bought at farmers markets this past weekend was a dozen eggs and half of a camembert since the fridge is packed. Out of a desire to make use of contents while unclogging the freezer:

Gratin of madeline-thin potatoes (four layers--the rest, three except for cheese)

• Leeks sautéed w fresh thyme
  
• Cabbage braised in chestnut-brown stock fortified w remains of roasted chicken
  
• Cream reduced w garlic cloves to augment braising liquids
  
• Crisp bacon
  
• Grated Stoneyman (final layer dappled w butter)
  

Leftovers reheated in oven, last night consumed w an entire bunch of Red Russian kale (sautéed w garlic, red chili flakes and a couple of spoonfuls of stock). Too tired to accompany w a protein, so Pink Lady apple slices dipped in peanut butter for dessert. As much as I am saddened by each week's shrinking piles of produce at markets swept by cold, bitter winds, and the deep, black dark that masks evening hours as if they were late at night, it's good to return to the warming dishes of winter.

[lperry]

^ Winter food is nice, but the big plus is that I can eat more when it's cold.

These are from over the weekend. Tostones with homemade aïoli. This dish was meant to be an appetizer, but it ended up being the whole meal. Those things are filling.

A grits and Tuscan kale casserole with shirred eggs. I adapted this one from a brunch recipe in Southern Living (yes, Southern Living), and it turned out very well as a warming dinner with bread on the side. Kale from the garden sautéed with onion and red wine, grits augmented with a little cream, butter, asiago, and chêvre.

[Pat]

Saturday night:

Frisee with roasted red peppers and sherry-rosemary vinaigrette

Baked ham

Saffron roasted cauliflower

Chipotle mashed sweet potatoes

Last night:

Walnut-onion bread

Wine-braised short ribs and parsnips

Rosemary mashed potatoes

Roasted carrots and shallots with olives and gremolata

[Anna Blume]

Lentil soup w chestnuts

Arugula and radish salad

Warm gingerbread ringed by applesauce and topped w Greek-style yogurt

[Pat]

Frisee, grape tomatoes, bacon, and vinaigrette

Deviled eggs with gremolata

Leftover pork loin and gravy

Leftover porky cider rice

Leftover lemon mascarpone polenta

The eggs were more like lemony stuffed eggs than deviled, but it used up leftover gremolata. I'm not sure I loved the lemon with the eggs, but it was at least a change from the typical deviled eggs I make.

[lperry]

Last night we had a modified version of this salad. Because the dressing was originally for sweet persimmons, and I wanted it on a lettuce salad with persimmons on top, I whisked about half of a very ripe persimmon into the dressing. It worked great. Served with hot bread and butter. Thanks for the suggestion, Zora. It is an interesting mix of flavors.

[zoramargolis]

Last night we had a modified version of this salad. Because the dressing was originally for sweet persimmons, and I wanted it on a lettuce salad with persimmons on top, I whisked about half of a very ripe persimmon into the dressing. It worked great. Served with hot bread and butter. Thanks for the suggestion, Zora. It is an interesting mix of flavors.

Glad to see the vinaigrette recipe again--I'd been making it from memory and forgot that there was supposed to be some cumin in it.

[LauraB]

Baked spaghetti squash with oyster mushroom and pearl onion ragout

Sauteed red kale with garlic

[monavano]

Leftovers-something old, something new.

Started with new turkey and wild rice soup made from our T-day carcass and 3 fresh turkey legs (serendipitously plucked from the clearance meat section yesterday). Now, I have 5 quarts of stock and shredded meat in the freezer, as well as tonight's leftover soup in a pot. In tonight's version, the veggies in the soup were carrots, celery and corn. I also threw in parm rind.

Reheated leftovers for the main-turkey meatloaf rolled with spinach and provolone, roasted asparagus with parm, sauteed mushrooms with thyme and mashed sweet potatoes with orange zest (and a bit of juice), cumin and pimenton.

[Pat]

Comfort food night after another bitterly cold day:

Toasted walnut and onion bread

Bacon-and-cheese-stuffed mushrooms

Beef stroganoff

Buttered tagliatelle with minced parsley

Buttered peas

Bread was the last two slices of six small loaves I made 10 days ago. I love the stuff but a batch lasts forever. Mascarpone and cream cheeses in the mushrooms. Fresh tagliatelle from Canales at Eastern Market.

:waving: Zora!! :waving: Frozen peas .

[leleboo]

Comfort food night after another bitterly cold day:

Yeah. I'm having a very, very bad night -- comfort food wouldn't even help (although your mushrooms sound like they might come close).

Still, I tried:

Sticky balsamic glazed chicken thighs

Sautéed zucchini and eggplant with shallot

A lot of wine.

[zoramargolis]

:waving: Zora!! :waving: Frozen peas .

What...? Do you imagine I'd disapprove? Frozen peas are my husband's favorite vegetable.

[Pat]

What...? Do you imagine I'd disapprove? Frozen peas are my husband's favorite vegetable.

I remember that. I was telling you in solidarity My mother always served frozen peas. I don't ever recall canned or fresh. I'm imprinted on the frozen. I like them, though maybe not as much as your husband.

And Leleboo, I hope tomorrow is an improvement on tonight.

[qwertyy]

Stuffed portobellas, filled with sauteed button mushrooms, rehydrated porcinis, onion, shallot, wild rice, and goat cheese, and then broiled with a bit of parm on top; from Mollie Katzen's The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without (I'm just now realizing that I forgot the lemon juice and tomatoes, but I added the porcinis and porcini water and red wine to the sautee for the hell of it)

Apple, fennel, and endive salad with a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, shallot, dijon, salt, and pepper; from my head*

*This was a little bitter, which went pretty well with the rich stuffed mushroom, but I might add some honey to the dressing next time. But my veg friend, who just moved to town into a showbox apartment with a criminally small kitchen, seemed to be in heaven.

[bettyjoan]

The first quasi-real use of my new kitchen was last night - we closed on our first house on 11/29, and we've finally gotten moved in enough to really live there. Woo hoo!

I say "quasi-real" because even though I used the oven, it was only to cook some salmon with basil butter that I got from Costco (surprisingly good, actually). After DAYS of moving and eating on the run, it was maybe the best meal in recent memory (served with steamed broccoli).

Served with Ferrari-Carano fume blanc - still drinking off the leftovers from sister's wedding.

[lperry]

Yesterday morning I woke to find that all the tiny fennel plants outside the cold frame were lying on the ground. Once cleaned, they amounted to a couple of tablespoons, so I braised them in sweet butter and topped them with grated Parmigiano Reggiano and tucked the ramekin under the broiler. The result doesn't look super exciting (as a matter of fact, my photo looks like something Sesame Street would use to teach simple shapes,) but it turned out silky and tender with a crispy, salty frico on top. Yum. Served with a reheated piece of mixed-greens quiche that I stashed in the freezer for a dinner-for-one occasion.

[leleboo]

I braised them in sweet butter and topped them with grated Parmigiano Reggiano and tucked the ramekin under the broiler. The result doesn't look super exciting but it turned out silky and tender with a crispy, salty frico on top. Yum.

Yum indeed! That sounds fantastic!

(as a matter of fact, my photo looks like something Sesame Street would use to teach simple shapes,)

If Sesame Street used food like this to teach shapes, I'd start watching!

[zoramargolis]

baguette with chevre and marinated olives

merguez meatloaf (lamb and turkey)

minted yogurt sauce

oven roasted asparagus

basmati rice

TJ's mini mint ice cream sandwiches

2006 Montes Alpha syrah

[KMango]

Leek, potato, and ham soup

GF baguette with garlic basil butter

[Pat]

Brie and chive biscuits

Roasted chicken

Roasted chanterelles with olives, thyme, and rosemary

Mashed potatoes with bacon

The olives were a little too strong for the chanterelles, but everything was still good. I had bought two organic chickens at Costco and decided to roast them both at the same time. I went with the convection setting on the oven to save time and because it worked well the last time I roasted a whole chicken. The chicken came out great, really juicy. I put rosemary and lemon in the cavities. I'm not sure on the mechanics, but the convection roasting seems to caramelize the outside and hold the juices in. Normally I'd roast a chicken at 375F, which would equate to 350 on convection, but I did these at 365F (which I think is what I used last time too).

[Anna Blume]

Zora, I can't resist:

Doggy cartons of Mongolian beef w cumin, crisp & spicy eggplant extracted from bread coating, and white rice plated w about half a pound of spinach steam-boiled in a little water that I drank after finishing my honey & Meyer lemon-laced herbal tea. Thinking about a few forkfuls of a gratin of cannellini baked w creme fraiche and herbs later and maybe an apple or small square of homemade gingerbread warmed in microwave above chilled applesauce.

[zoramargolis]

charcoal grilled strip steak

caramelized cippolini onions with red wine vinegar

oven roasted brussels sprouts with reggiano parmesan and meyer lemon

basmati rice

pears poached in spiced syrup, with whipped cream

2007 Broquel malbec

[Pat]

Brie and chive biscuits

Spaghetti with sausage alla carbonara (from a recent NYTimes recipe)

[lperry]

Work schedules had me making dinner-for-one again, and I went with a breakfast theme. Grated potato pancake, pan fried, topped with sautéed kale and an over-easy egg. Paired with a Côtes du Rhône. There's something about hot breakfast food in the cold weather.

[Pat]

Leftover roasted chicken

Shells and cheese with browned butter and Swiss chard

Roasted Parmesan-creamed onions

Both the shells and onions were based on recipes I found online. I ended up putting my shells and chard on top of the onions to eat them. Wow. That was good, but very rich.

The shells were baked in a sauce of mozzarella and chevre. Chard was a nice addition and made it seem at least a little healthy. I didn't follow that recipe too closely. It originally started out as a gluten-free recipe, and I used traditional pasta and flour, etc. If any gluten-free folks are interested, it came from a collection of several gluten-free recipes.

The onion recipe (highly recommended) came from from Rick Tramanto's Osteria. Roasted Parmesan-Creamed Onions.

[monavano]

Did they taste good? I'm feeling personally responsible for your caramel experience.

If you want to check your thermometer, put it in boiling water and see if it reads 212/100. I had an old round glass one that wasn't really accurate, so I bought two of these to replace it. They are really nice because the tip of the glass thermometer is automatically held just off the bottom of the pan by the design of the thermometer itself. It also has little red arrows marking important candy temperatures.

That's exactly the type of thermometer I have and thank you for the link for the metal-backed candy thermometer-that's the type I had in mind to buy.

Good? Yes! Good enough to put on this platter for a neighbor's Holiday party we're heading out to now

[qwertyy]

Salisbury steak and steamed broccoli

In serious need of some comfort food and with some mushrooms and ground beef to use, I reverted to college cafeteria-land, and this recipe made it worthy of adulthood. I left it to simmer on the stove rather than the oven and threw in some fennel because I also have that to spare. This one is a winner.

[monavano]

Yellow split pea soup with ham.

Cheddar-rosemary quick bread. I also added a handful of chopped Calhoun's country ham and some Keswick quark.

(dinner was light after noshing at a neighbor's Holiday party)

[lperry]

Last night was a perfect soup night.

Cabbage and potato soup with crusty bread and butter.

[zoramargolis]

Last night was a perfect soup night.

Great cooks think alike. Mushroom, barley and bean soup with Quail Ridge cider sourdough bread and Clear Creek Creamery butter.

[Pat]

Frisee with grape tomatoes, black olives, and bacon; vinaigrette

Leftover stuffed mushrooms and roasted cauliflower

Chicken noodle soup with roasted chanterelles

Potato gnocchi with green olive sauce

[monavano]

Veal Saltimbocca using a Cook's Illustrated recipe. The sauce was wonderful.

Rapini with Parmesan

Penne with tomato sauce (going for the Italian restaurant of my youth-experience)

[Pat]

Chicken noodle soup with roasted chanterelles

Leftover ham

Maple-glazed sweet potatoes and goat cheese

Leftover roasted Parmesan-creamed onions

[lperry]

I wanted to have the oven on, so:

Roasted sweet potatoes (in their jackets) with a compound chipotle/lemon butter.

Thinly sliced roasted cauliflower.

Mixed lettuces in an herb vinaigrette.

I know I probably should have used lime in the compound butter, but I wanted a sidecar - not a margarita. It was still awfully good.

[LauraB]

Roasted kabocha, butternut squash, and parsnips with maple syrup glaze with garlic and rosemary and finely chopped Marcona almonds as a topping

Sauteed kale and garlic

[bettyjoan]

Standing rib roast (just a baby one - it was on sale, I couldn't help myself)

Saffron rice

Green beans

Some cava left over from my sister's wedding - was celebrating successfully setting up internet in the new house, woo hoo! I am connected again, thank goodness.

[Anna Blume]

Chicken sausage stuffed w apples and Calvados

Sautéed kohlrabi greens w onion

Roasted purple-skinned and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes w cultured butter

Roasted radicchio

Clementine

[Pat]

Last night:

Salad of frisee, Belgian endive, radicchio, grape tomatoes, ham, swiss cheese, roasted red peppers; vinaigrette

Chicken sandwiches on multigrain bread with chipotle mayo and avocado

Leftover shells and cheese with chard

Tonight:

Italian bread with soy spread

Salad of frisee, Belgian endive, radicchio, grape tomatoes, ham, swiss cheese, roasted red peppers, and radishes; vinaigrette

Calamari braised in tomato sauce

Leftover spaghetti carbonara with green olive sauce

[lperry]

For tonight's dinner I made Ina Garten's roasted butternut squash salad and served bread with butter on the side. The greens were from the cold frame, and, at this point, were a little frost-bitten, so I wanted something that called for them to be wilted. This is a nice recipe, and quite filling as a main during the otherwise indulgent holiday season.

[zoramargolis]

panko-crusted skate wing

remoulade sauce

pilaf (made with Spanish medium-grain rice)

frozen peas

"Royal Riviera" pear (aka comice--the Harry and David conceit, a holiday gift from my nephew and his wife.) J proclaimed it "the best pear I've ever eaten."

ginger molasses cookie from BlackSalt