Dinner - The Polyphonic Food Blog

[Pat]

Buttered sourdough toast
Penne with leftover pork meatballs marinara (w/added basil and Parmesan, and fresh mozzarella sliced on top)
Kitchen sink salad (baby spinach, bagged cole slaw mix, chopped chicken, tomatoes, chickpeas, bacon, and cashews; bottled sesame-soy-ginger vinaigrette)

The salad was delicious. So was the pasta, but that the salad was so good was kind of a surprise.

[Pat]

After a long, hot afternoon at the ballpark, I was not in the mood to make an elaborate dinner, so I repurposed the leftovers from our dinner at Belga and served them with steamed broccoli.

Leftover ribeye steak became tacos, with cole slaw mix, slivers of red onion, sliced radishes, avocado chunks, and sour cream.

And I invented cheese fry quesadillas. Leftover french fries and Hatch chile cheddar sandwiched into quesadillas. It's a thing now. Try it..

(The cheese was not as hot as I would think from the name. I should have added a little extra hot pepper. Next time maybe I'll use pepper jack. Even with the milder cheese, these were awesome.)

[ktmoomau]

This weekend, we mainly made stuff for my birthday pool party- baked beans, hot dogs on the grill, french onion dip.  The rest of the time we ate leftovers.

[NolaCaine]

On 8/3/2018 at 2:34 PM, Pat said:

BLTs and potato chips last night

Seemed like a good idea; so had this exact menu for lunch yesterday...well, with a small avocado salad on the side...

[porcupine]

Smoky ratatouille with ricotta and saffron couscous.

Tonight, tomato sandwiches on homemade sourdough, assuming the bread turns out okay; if it doesn't, tomato salad. Probably roasted corn on the cob, too.

I love August.

[Pat]

Leftover polenta, layered with leftover broccoli and fresh mozzarella
White beans with onions, peppers, and celery

[ktmoomau]

Tuna with roasted veggies and rice.

[Pat]

Chicken thighs and country sausage with leftover white beans and vegetables.

[ktmoomau]

Casserole of wild rice and quinoa blend, black beans, spicy italian sausage and spinach with cumin, epazote, cilantro and garlic, roasted vegetables and cheese (american, pepperjack, jack).  

[DaveO]

On 8/7/2018 at 1:34 PM, ktmoomau said:

Tuna with roasted veggies and rice.

Pretty.  I suspect it tasted as good as it looks

[Pat]

In memory of Joel Robuchon, I made the tagliatelle with sherry vinegar sauce  from The Complete Robuchon last night. It's simple and very good. The first time I made it, I went to the trouble of peeling the peppers, and it probably is better that way, but I'd spent the afternoon baking at the ballpark again and getting dinner on the table at all was a challenge.  Without the peeling step, this can easily be on the table in 30 minutes.

We also had warmed camembert topped with red raspberry  preserves, served with olive oil rosemary crackers. 

[Pat]

Wild salmon ceviche with tomato, avocado, peach, cucumber, and radish
Pan-seared sea scallops
White rice with parsley and sautéed zucchini

[Pat]

Hamburgers
Mashed potatoes with chives
Corn on the cob

[Pat]

Sunday:
Slow-cooked pork shoulder with hot peppers
[Corn tortillas, radishes, cole slaw mix, avocado, sour cream, and cilantro for making tacos]
Leftover rice
Leftover white beans

Last night:
Cantaloupe
Angel hair pasta with raw tomato sauce (fresh basil, garlic)

[Pat]

Pulled pork sandwiches (bbq sauce, cole slaw, banana peppers, pickled jalapeños; onion rolls)
Leftover mashed potatoes with chives
Corn on the cob

[dcandohio]

Tonight is halved hatch chili peppers  stuffed with yellow onion, green onion, chopped up white mushrooms, Italian breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, and a bit of chicken stock.  

[Pat]

Leftover polenta "pizza"
BLTs on onion rolls

[Pat]

Sliced tomatoes
Baked chicken drumsticks
Baked rotini and cheese

I usually just squeeze lemon juice on drumsticks and dot with a little butter before baking them, but yesterday I was doing a full dozen, so I coated them in a large ziploc with a mixture of Dijon mustard, champagne vinegar, evoo, smoked paprika, sumac, cumin, and s + p. They cooked up really nicely.

[Pat]

Big salad
    Red leaf lettuce, radicchio, hard-boiled eggs,  radishes, figs, mushrooms, parsley, cilantro, basil, sliced seared sirloin steak, feta/gorgonzola; vinaigrette

 

[ktmoomau]

Shrimp pasta with garlic, white wine, lemon butter sauce.

[Pat]

Sourdough bread
Leftover cream of turnip soup 
Chicken Paprikash over egg noodles

A friend made dinner for me on my birthday early in the week and put together a wonderful soup out of remnants of a CSA basket: Turnip, cauliflower, and potato soup with a milk base and a bit of curry, turned to velvety puree in a Vitamix. I can't really justify buying one of those, but it does it great job in pureeing. She sent me home with a jar of the excess. (The rest of the meal was boneless leg of lamb, done sous-vide and then seared, served over a melange of chickpeas and roasted vegetables, with rice on the side. The lamb came out perfectly medium rare. It was a great birthday meal. I'm going to try the lamb idea. I think she said she did it sous vide for 4 hours at 130F.)

[Pat]

Big salad of butter lettuce, radicchio, radishes, cucumber, nectarine, figs, toasted walnuts, mushrooms, bacon, and olives; sesame-soy-ginger vinaigrette
Fig quesadilla
Corn on the cob with pesto
Sourdough bread

 

[Pat]

Leftover salad + feta
Corn on the cob with butter
Baked chicken breasts and thighs with pesto
Whole wheat couscous with onions, garlic, orange bell pepper, baby spinach, and raisins

The pesto, which I made Saturday, came out abnormally dark and bitter for some reason. It was never bright green, just went straight to looking old and oxidized. The bitterness was easily corrected with a tiny bit of honey, but I had to find uses for the rest of it after putting some on corn on the cob. It was not visually appealing. Some of it went in grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches for yesterday's lunch, which worked well. The rest was spread under the skin of the chicken pieces for last night's dinner. Also worked well. All gone.

[ktmoomau]

To use the rest of the bag of shrimp, I made a risotto topped with shrimp and spinach.  The rest of the week we had REALLY good BLT sandwiches to use up the rest of some amazing bacon.

[Pat]

Monday:
Sardines in tomato sauce over polenta and green peas
Ham, pepper, cheese, and spinach frittata
Sourdough toast

Last night:
Leftover frittata
Beef kabobs with cucumber - mint salad and yogurt sauce

[ktmoomau]

I really was basic last night- I made chicken thighs pounded flat, rubbed with a seasoning blend from Penzeys, sauteed in butter and lemon.  Then I warmed up a bag of broccoli and cheese in the freezer, which was watery, but I had bought it for a night I was gone for Hubby, and well emptying the freezer and didn't feel like dirtying a pan to reduce freezer cheese sauce.  I also warmed up squash I made the other night to go with steak.  The freezer is pretty darn empty now- there are some odd bits here and there.  My baking supplies have vastly dwindled, except for the extreme amount of cocoa powder I accumulated, the fridge is getting low, there are still some odd staples in canned and dried goods, but I won't be moving vast sums of items.

[Pat]

I didn't want to heat the kitchen last night. The only appliance that got a workout was the toaster, as I toasted several pieces of leftover sourdough bread, cut in half and then rubbed with garlic and topped with chopped tomato, basil, and evoo for bruschetta.

We also had a fruit plate with dips/spreads: halved nectaries, dates, and figs; yogurt - mint sauce; tahini. It was so hot, even with AC, that the normally thick tahini melted on the plate.

There was also a block of neufchâtel cheese, topped with hot pepper jelly, served with Triscuits, stoneground crackers, and olives.

[ktmoomau]

I made a clam pasta last night with frozen in the shell clams with spinach and red sauce.  I sauteed the clams in olive oil and garlic, they opened up and it worked well, but the clams ended up although not being off, just a bit more clammy/sea tasting that if I had used absolutely fresh clams. 

[Pat]

I decided to imitate the birthday dinner my friend made for me. I did the lamb sous vide and then seared it and served over a spiced sautéed melange of chickpeas and vegetables. Rice pilaf rounded it out. 

For the lamb, I put into the sous vide pouch the  juice of a lemon, dried mint, cumin, and sumac, plus s+p. For the vegetables: red, orange, and green bell pepper; red onion; garlic; yellow summer squash; radicchio; s+p; aleppo pepper; honey; fresh cilantro and mint; 2 cans drained + rinsed chickpeas.

It came out well but not quite the same as being cooked for . Mine was spicier because of the Aleppo pepper, which is kind of funny because she's Indian and I think was taming the spices. Hers tasted a bit smoother, if that's the right word. Very grateful for the idea. This is a keeper of a meal idea.

[Pat]

Tonight we had a kind of chicken Parm over fettuccine. I made a homemade tomato sauce out of a whole bunch of tomatoes I had accumulated. I cooked them down into a sauce while watching the Nats' game on TV. For the rest of the meal, I marinated skinless boneless chicken breasts with herbs in buttermilk and then eventually drained and breaded them with more seasonings and Parmesan. After being browned and cooked through, they went under the broiler briefly, topped with smoked provolone, and then were served on top of the cooked fettuccine and tomato sauce. Really good.

[ktmoomau]

This weekend was my family reunion- night one we do a cook out- and Mom and I made potato wedges with old bay, and I made no-bake cookies with coconut.

Supper Day two is the big one- I made hand pies with beef, mixed with onion, salsa, olives and chilles that I fried then baked off, what I think is like a freezer pie dessert- graham cracker base, instant lemon cheesecake, mixed berry compote layer, whipped cream (mixed with the last 1/4 cup of cannoli filling) and then a roasted hazelnut, graham cracker struesel topping (not as good as Weezy's struesel topping), the aforementioned cannoli, and I used the second last bag of shrimp by making shrimp steamed/boiled in beer and old bay.

Last night we were home and I warmed up leftover pizza, made some garlic bread and baked the pasta with greens and red sauce with a pud of mozzarella on top. 

[Pat]

Last night was vinaigrette-dressed pasta salad with broccoli, bacon, peppers, olives, and feta; seared pork tenderloin finished in the oven; and, roasted slices of delicate squash.

I made the pasta salad early in the day so I wouldn't have to cook in the evening, but then I decided that I wanted something to go with it. I was just going to make the pork because iI had it in the refrigerator and it's pretty quick but then saw the squash sitting on the counter. So i  sliced and seeded the squash and put it into the oven at the same time as the meat.

[ktmoomau]

Last night was salmon crusted with lemon zest and a rub someone gifted me.  I also made most of the veggies frozen in the freezer- a bit of green beans, peas, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots with shallots and the basil butter that was also frozen. And a side of white rice.

I went ahead and started packing the last bits of the kitchen, as I am down to a very small amount in all the cupboards.

[Pat]

Last night we had leftover salad and a plantain and lamb casserole from Bon Appetit. The casserole took forever to make but was incredibly good.  It had a picadillo filling between layers of fried plantains. The recipe is from Commander's Palace in New Orleans, from their family meal.

[Pat]

Last night I made the grilled chicken with banana peppers recipe that was part of the same Commander's Palace recipe collection as the plantain and lamb casserole.I realized that I had all of the ingredients on hand to make it, so I thought, why not. It called for 16 chicken thighs and I only had 4, but they were about 1/3 of the total weigh called for, so I scaled down the spicy marinade portion of the recipe to match that. This recipe also came out really well.  Instead of grilling, I browned the thighs on both sides in a  cast iron skillet and finished in a hot oven.

We also had a salad of red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, orange and green bell pepper, toasted walnuts, and red wine vinaigrette, plus a side dish of wild rice, wilted spinach, dried cranberries, fresh figs, and crumbled feta. I had a tiny amount of tomato sauce left in the fridge from the plantain casserole, so I put that into the side dish as well.

[NolaCaine]

I made meat broth from all of the frozen stuff that was in my freezer. Chicken, grilled pork chops, two different types of brisket and yes, steak slices. This broth is so damn good that I can't decide what to make with it. I was going to make red beans and rice but now I think I have to make soup with it and just buy some more pork products for the beans. 

[Katya4me]

Last night, I found 2 strip steaks in the freezer, so I defrosted and grilled with with zucchini spears and served with chimichurri sauce drizzled over the top.  So tasty and so easy too. 

[Katya4me]

Dinner last night was grilled chicken thighs with mushroom risotto made in the Instant Pot.  I started the risotto and the cooking time was perfect as it finished right after I took the chicken off the grill. Little pepper, some Parmesan and dinner was served.

[Pat]

Last night was mostly leftovers: the plantain and lamb casserole plus the wild rice side dish from Saturday. I also made a simple white bean salad with a  can of Greet Northern beans, slivered onion, lime juice, evoo, pepper, and fresh mint and parsley

[NolaCaine]

The red beans and rice was fantastic. I started with small red beans, did the fast-soak method and sauteed the other stuff while the beans softened. Sausage, ham steak, bacon along with celery, pepper, and lots of onion. I started at 2 and it was done at 6. Served over white rice; with a side of carrot sticks.  The broth remains to be utilized and optimized.

[dcandohio]

Unseasonable chili with beans last night. 

Broiled salmon with tomato bruschetta toppping on a mixed salad tonight. 

[DonRocks]

54 minutes ago, dcandohio said:

Unseasonable chili with beans last night. 

Unseasonable?

[dcandohio]

 

7 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Unseasonable?

The weather here is really too warm for chili.  But college football on TV is a certain trigger for a pot of chili on the stove.

[Pat]

Sourdough baguette and butter or seasoned evoo
Spinach tortellini en brodo
Red leaf lettuce, radishes, and cucumber; red wine vinaigrette

[Pat]

Turkey chili
Nachos

[Pat]

After getting back from the baseball game, I heated up some (non-authentic) red beans and rice I had made and kept in the refrigerator for a quick meal.

[NolaCaine]

2 hours ago, Pat said:

After getting back from the baseball game, I heated up some (non-authentic) red beans and rice I had made and kept in the refrigerator for a quick meal.

I just ate the remainder of my authentic red beans sans rice, some leftover non-authentic Indian beans, and some non-authentic shrimp stir fry...cleaning out the fridge for the weekend. Strangely satisfying that meal. 

[Pat]

On September 14, 2018 at 11:52 AM, NolaCaine said:

I just ate the remainder of my authentic red beans sans rice, some leftover non-authentic Indian beans, and some non-authentic shrimp stir fry...cleaning out the fridge for the weekend. Strangely satisfying that meal. 

Sounds like a good combo to me . 

I made a mushroom moussaka recipe last night that I found online. There wasn't enough eggplant in it, but it came out fairly well. I tried to balance things out by serving it over some pasta, along with some of the last leftovers from the plantain and lamb casserole. So the vegetarian moussaka had lamb in it anyway...

[Pat]

Turkey chili topped with avocado
Broccoli rabe and sausage frittata

[Pat]

Pan-seared pork chops finished in the oven
Scalloped apples and prunes with hot pepper jelly 
Spiced, roasted orange cauliflower and butternut squash