Dinner - The Polyphonic Food Blog

[dcandohio]

Inspired by Pat’s post above, I used the Punjabi turnip recipe to make Punjabi potatoes. Great recipe. I think the potatoes mitigated some of the heat, but it still had a nice low burn and the cilantro stems were surprisingly great. 
 

The potatoes accompanied chicken thighs that I trimmed, and then marinated in a mixture of tahini dressing (homemade) and zhoug (Trader Joe’s). This mixture made a tasty marinade and would also be lovely as a sauce or a dip with crudités. After the thighs were in a hot oven for about five minutes, I put them under the broiler. 

This was a really satisfying meal, and I think that the chicken thighs might make good chicken salad tomorrow, especially if I mix a little bit of this zhoug into the mayo.

i’m grateful for this group as a source of cooking inspiration!

 

[Pat]

On 10/21/2020 at 7:58 PM, dcandohio said:

I used the Punjabi turnip recipe to make Punjabi potatoes.

That sounds really good. If it's a little mellower, maybe my husband would like that better. He's also not the hugest fan of turnips. (These came with a farm delivery of produce.) It's always fascinating to see what other people are making and inspired by. Good thing JPW started this thread way back when.

I love recipes that use cilantro stems. They're a great addition to a lot of things and don't taste like cilantro. I like cilantro but have been unsuccessful in convincing people who don't that the stems will be just fine.

Wednesday night was pretty simple:
Butter lettuce and tomatoes; Caesar dressing
Baked Tofu With Peanut Sauce and Bok Choy
Brown basmati rice

The tofu recipe was from the Washington Post and was okay. I have a lot of leftover peanut sauce. The rice came out way too wet. I'm not sure what happened, but there was way too much water. Bad directions? Mismeasuring? Who knows. The meal was somehow finished and gotten on the table in the immediate aftermath of a Giant delivery that didn't go well. At least we ate 🤷‍♀️.

Thursday:
Leftover salad + avocado
Baked cod with garlic & herb Ritz crumbs
Stouffer's spinach souffle
Eggy brown rice

The cod recipe was delicious, from Ina Garten's new Modern Comfort Food. I only made half the amount of fish and ended up making too much sauce. The souffle is something I'd been craving and came in the Giant delivery. I didn't like it as much as I remembered. I tried to salvage some of the rice by reheating it with some scrambled eggs. Eh.

Tonight:
Salad of gem lettuce, Campari tomato, avocado, carrot, cucumber, and shredded cheddar; Caesar dressing
Zucchini corn muffins
Beets with horseradish and pumpkin seeds
Leftover cod with garlic butter sauce
Mushrooms Stroganoff

This was a good meal, but I made one too many things. The beets were too much like a salad to have a green salad too. The beets, from the NY Times, were excellent, though, and very pretty. The stroganoff was an Epicurious recipe and turned out nicely. I used button, cremini, and shiitake. Scaled it down to go with about 6 oz. noodles in an open package. This scaled more successfully than the cod recipe.  More muffins from the freezer.

 

[saf]

15 hours ago, Pat said:

Baked Tofu With Peanut Sauce and Bok Choy
The tofu recipe was from the Washington Post and was okay. I have a lot of leftover peanut sauce. 

How was the peanut sauce? I am planning a noodle, veg, and maybe some leftover chicken dish and want to use peanut sauce. I like LOTS of peanut sauce. I think most sesame/peanut noodle dishes are under sauced. And I am looking for a new sauce recipe.

[Pat]

I thought the peanut sauce was pretty good. It's here. Looking back, I realize that when I used their scaling feature to make fewer servings, it didn't scale the sauce. It still gives the amounts for the 4-6 servings, which is their default serving size for the recipe.

[Pat]

I used some of the excess peanut sauce last night. Still have plenty to go!

Leftover salad
Leftover beets with horseradish and pumpkin seeds
Soba noodles with peanut sauce and scallions
Miso-Stewed Acorn Squash with Bell Peppers

I really love these beets, though the recipe started with two pounds, so they're lasting a while. The colors in this are gorgeous, like art on a plate.

The stewed squash recipe was weird. It's from Food and Wine, from food bloggers I've read off and on for years. That's why I proceeded with the recipe anyway. It tastes pretty good but was...unusual. My husband said it looked like applesauce, which--I've got to admit--it did. 

The recipe calls for using strips of bell pepper and wedges of acorn squash with the skin left on. Pretty awkward for eating a stew. Acorn squash has dense enough skin I wouldn't really want to eat it, though I guess people do. I microwaved the squash for a few minutes so I could cut it more easily. That also meant it was easier to get the skin off, so I proceeded with denuded wedges (except some of the wedges broke...) Anyway, not sure about the concept but it tasted good. I used red miso and my squash was smaller than the one called for, so I adjusted amounts a little bit to account for that.

[naxos]

Last night NYT Takeout-style Sesame Noodles but added poached chicken.

With fall chill in the air today, made a batch of soup with sweet potatoes, honey nut squash, leeks and chicken soup which was in the freezer.

 

[Pat]

An easy, mostly leftover night for Sunday:
Cheddar - Jalapeno bread (from the freezer)
Leftover miso stewed squash
Leftover mushroom stroganoff  plus green peas
Leftover beets

Cooking the peas and reheating stuff was all the prep necessary. The peas were really good in the stroganoff. It's basically tuna noodle casserole without the tuna.

[dcandohio]

Steel head trout from wild Fork foods with a spicy maple mustard glaze. 
A tacky, 1980’s spinach and artichoke casserole. Still delicious. 

[Katya4me]

We made Cheese Buldak the other night. I've got a lot of gochujang and my husband is not a huge fan of it, but likes this dish.  We added in some leftover rice and had it with roasted diced potatoes, sweet potatoes and squash for a delicious and very comforting meal.

[Pat]

4 hours ago, Katya4me said:

We made Cheese Buldak the other night. I've got a lot of gochujang and my husband is not a huge fan of it, but likes this dish.  We added in some leftover rice and had it with roasted diced potatoes, sweet potatoes and squash for a delicious and very comforting meal.

Whoa. That looks hotter than the Sam Sifton recipe I've been making, which is based on the one that's really popular that the blogger alludes to. I tend to find the Sifton one too cheese heavy, so I might like to try to less or no cheese authenticity, but I do think I'd need to be careful not to go full-on with the heat.

Last night we had Spicy Southwestern Soup from a dry mix and nachos. I have been craving nachos, and they are one restaurant food that I make as well or better at home. Nachos are one of my comfort foods, and these were satisfying. I didn't fancy them up much: pinto beans, chopped tomatoes, pickled jalapeno slices, very thin home-pickled habanero slices, mozzarella, and cheddar were the core ingredients. I topped them at the end with scallions, cilantro, a few dollops of sour cream, and a drizzling of Frontera tomato salsa.

The soup mix is from North Bay Trading Company, where I've bought dried vegetables and such. It has dried hot peppers in it along with a variety of beans, pulses, and some corn. I've made it before and I think it came out better this time. I used better than bouillon to make a chicken base for it (not at full strength). Last time I just used water. It's okay. Definitely has a lot of variety in the beans. And it is spicy!

 

 

[Katya4me]

I didn't have Capsaicin powder, so I skipped that, but did add some cayenne pepper instead.  It probably was not as spicy as it could have been, but we both enjoyed it.

[Pat]

Maybe I'll make this one the next time and see how it goes. I see she's also got a milder one without cheese that has rice balls. It uses cooked rice instead of the rice rolls the Sifton one does, which seem to be cylinders of sweetened puffed rice.

[Katya4me]

It' not the same, but this one is also really good and uses rice cakes: https://www.tablefortwoblog.com/korean-rice-cakes-with-spicy-turkey-ragu-and-bok-choy/  Now I'm reminded that I haven't had this in far too long. 

[Katya4me]

Last night, we did a noodle curry.  The last time I went to the Asian market, I I just got a whole stack of all the different pastes and slowly giving a try to the ones that aren't green or red.  I took a can of Kaeng Par curry paste and mixed it with coconut milk, tossed in diced chicken, with chopped bok choy and daikon radish.  Once the chicken was cooked, tossed in some fresh udon noodles.  It was tasty, but definitely cleared the sinuses right up.

[Pat]

Last night
Salad (gem lettuce, tomato, cucumber, provolone; vinaigrette)
Sheet Pan Salmon with Brussels Sprouts
Roasted portobellos stuffed with brown rice, Korean rice rolls, bacon, tarragon, pecans, and dried cranberries

I had excess pieces of rice rolls I'd cooked for buldak a while back, so I crumbled them up to add into the filling. That rice just blended in with the brown rice. I'm not sure the tarragon really went with this. It didn't not go but could have been omitted.

The salmon recipe was designed for one person, so I used twice as much salmon and sprouts as called for. In the end, it didn't even require all of the sauce mixture (which I made with the original amounts), and we had leftovers of everything. We had some for today's lunch and still have a little left. We're not eating as much these days, but one total serving of the salmon and vegetables and one stuffed mushroom each had just seemed like it wouldn't be enough...

Tonight was, I guess I'll call it diner food: patty melts, home fries, and peas. I love patty melts. I used TJ's multigrain sourdough because it's what I have, but they really should be on seeded rye.

[saf]

I fell behind!

Sunday was grill night. He's trying SO hard to grill for as long as possible. Beer can chicken, carrots, mushrooms.  And of course, salad. Also grilled a red pepper for me to peel to have later in the week in the noodle thing. It was very nice. Finished the dutch apple pie and the buttermilk vanilla ice cream.

Then taquitos. I love taquitos. Leftover chicken is so nice! Guacamole is my favorite. And of course, salad.

Then I took a strata out of the freezer. That was nice. And of course, salad.

Last night was my experimental noodles and veg. I forgot to put leftover chicken in. Ooops. And of course, salad. I used the peanut sauce from above. It was nice. Although I was out of hoisin, so I used bean paste. Still tasted good!

Tonight was cream of broccoli soup out of the freezer. And of course, salad.

Oh, and the bread of the week was the harvest grain bread from Ravenhook. Butter from South Mountain. The bread that we did not finish has now become dried cubes for stuffing for the Thanksgiving chicken. Dessert of the week,  after Sunday, was assorted ice cream from South Mountain (This week was their ice cream delivery week) and very good very dark chocolate cookies.

On 10/28/2020 at 9:27 PM, Pat said:

patty melts, home fries, and peas. I love patty melts.

Ooh patty melts. So good.

[naxos]

Last night Julia Child’s  French Onion Soup- definitely a blast from the past but very delicious.

[dwt]

18 hours ago, saf said:

He's trying SO hard to grill for as long as possible.

Hey, tell him to keep it going. I've grilled outside with snow on the ground -- manly, eh?  Granted it was the gas grill, not charcoal.

Halibut was on sale at WF so that's what we had last night, sautéed with lemon/caper/butter sauce. Sides were buttered orzo and fresh green beans. The fish and orzo were fine but the beans were not so good -- fatter, tougher, and not as sweet as they have been lately. I guess the peak season has passed. 

[Pat]

Last night:
Marinated chickpea salad over chopped Belgian endive (chickpeas, thinly sliced fennel stalks, serrano peppers, shaved red onion, and shredded carrot)
Campbell’s chunky chicken noodle soup
Hot dogs on potato buns; banana peppers; Gulden’s brown mustard

I keep canned soup around and then never use it. I'm trying to build up a bit of a stock of newer cans for the winter, in case they're needed, so I figure I should be clearing out the old stuff.

Tonight was biscuits from the freezer stock, more of the chickpea salad, and cottage pie. The biscuits are the last of a batch I made earlier this year that mostly didn't rise very high. They taste fine but they're not really proper biscuits.

Earlier today I used the last of the soured milk left after making the cornbread to make a batch of mashed potatoes with garlic and tarragon. About 1/2 of the potatoes went on top of the cottage pie. The ground beef was the last 1/3 lb. left from making patty melts. Once the package had been opened, I pre-cooked the meat with onion, garlic, and dried herbs and stashed it for future use.

Tonight I reheated the beef in a small nonstick skillet and then made a bit of gravy in there with flour, about 3/4 cup reconstituted beef Better Than Bouillon, and red wine. Cooked it down a while and that made a nice gravy to go with the beef on the bottom of the casserole. The veggies that went on top of the beef were defrosted from a frozen vegetable medley and supplemented with leftover cooked peas. I topped the casserole with grated cheddar from the last of a block, the last of some crumbled TJ's faux Ritz cracker crumbs I'd made for something else, and some dots of butter.

[saf]

6 hours ago, dwt said:

Hey, tell him to keep it going. I've grilled outside with snow on the ground -- manly, eh?  Granted it was the gas grill, not charcoal.

Ah, my dad, who lives in western NY, will grill all winter long. He also has a gas grill. We have charcoal.

[Pat]

Last night was the last of the marinated chickpea salad, this time tossed with shredded Napa cabbage, and pepperoni calzones. The calzones also had caramelized onions, anaheim pepper, and shiitake mushrooms in the filling, plus ricotta and mozzarella. I used TJ's jarred marinara sauce, with more alongside for dipping. I managed not to overfill the calzones too much. I had to guess on the amounts for the filling and didn't want any left over. It all matched up fairly well.

[Katya4me]

On 10/27/2020 at 5:20 PM, Katya4me said:

It' not the same, but this one is also really good and uses rice cakes: https://www.tablefortwoblog.com/korean-rice-cakes-with-spicy-turkey-ragu-and-bok-choy/  Now I'm reminded that I haven't had this in far too long. 

I got very excited when I saw that Wegmans carried rice cakes so I planned on this for dinner last night.  Unfortunately, the shopper couldn't find them. Womp, womp...  So, we made it and served it over rice and it was still delicious.  I had some green onions and noodlized carrot in the fridge, so I tossed them in as well. 

[dwt]

Alas, another fail. No, not pizza this time. I made meatballs in tomato sauce and they were dry. I'm not willing to do a forensic analysis by digging through the garbage can to find the ground beef label, but I'm fairly certain that I pulled a leaner pack of ground beef from the store than I'd intended. After all, the 80% lean is right next to the 90%+ in the refrigerator case at our local WF. Next time, double check. At least my two dining companions were kind enough to pronounce them good.

[saf]

On 10/30/2020 at 9:39 PM, Pat said:

I keep canned soup around and then never use it. I'm trying to build up a bit of a stock of newer cans for the winter, in case they're needed, so I figure I should be clearing out the old stuff.

One of the reasons that my freezer is always a bit too full is that when I make soup, I make extra and freeze it. I also realized that I never used the canned soup, despite liking soup. So, leftover homemade it is now.

Soup freezes well.

[Pat]

3 hours ago, saf said:

One of the reasons that my freezer is always a bit too full is that when I make soup, I make extra and freeze it. I also realized that I never used the canned soup, despite liking soup. So, leftover homemade it is now.

Soup freezes well.

I have leftover homemade soup in the freezer too. I usually pull it out a day or so before I'm going to use it so it can thaw. I tend not to think of it in enough to time to have it the same day, though. Sometimes I'll make more because it's faster than digging through the freezer, finding something, and thawing it. It would help if I had an up-to-date inventory. At some point I'm expecting the freezer stock will dwindle. Or, at the rate I'm going, maybe it won't.

Tonight much of our meal was food I picked up at Buffalo & Bergen earlier (the one on Mass. Ave. by Union Station). We had their matzoh ball soup, marble rye bagels with cream cheese, and french fries. I also made a salad: gem lettuce, Napa cabbage, Campari tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, roasted pepitas, and bottled ranch. I made cornbread croutons from some of the leftover cornbread (using some cayenne and garlic powder after glancing at a Rachael Ray recipe) to top the salad.

 

[saf]

Just now, Pat said:

I have leftover homemade soup in the freezer too. I usually pull it out a day or so before I'm going to use it so it can thaw. I tend not to think of it in enough to time to have it the same day, though.

Ah. I pack it in quart size freezer zippy bags, and often do not take them out until the night we are going to eat it. 

[Pat]

19 minutes ago, saf said:

Ah. I pack it in quart size freezer zippy bags, and often do not take them out until the night we are going to eat it. 

Do you have to lay them flat in the freezer? I usually use plastic containers. When I freeze things in zip-locs they end up frozen into weird sculptural shapes.

[saf]

Just now, Pat said:

Do you have to lay them flat in the freezer? I usually use plastic containers. When I freeze things in zip-locs they end up frozen into weird sculptural shapes.

They do have to start flat. Once they are solid, I put them on end in a line.

I have a bottom freezer fridge with drawers.

[dcandohio]

Blue corn tortilla-crusted steelhead trout - I mixed a bit of mayo with some white wine vinegar, hot chili powder, smoked paprika, cumin, and garlic, and spread this on the fish. I baked the fish in the hot oven, and right before it was done I added the crushed corn chips, drizzled with a little bit of olive oil, and ran it under the broiler.

Roasted broccoli and salad of Romaine and tomatoes with a simple vinaigrette. 

[naxos]

Garlic crumb crusted oven baked halibut with roasted Brussels sprouts and small purple potatoes.

To me, fresh halibut is most delicious when cooking time is very carefully monitored, otherwise it can become dry.

Today is set aside for comfort food- chicken soup grandma’s way.

[dcandohio]

Cheddar grits topped with crumbled bacon. Pure comfort. 

[saf]

I fell behind again. Oops.

We made a Wegmans expedition this weekend. I love Wegs. One of the things I miss from Western NY. So, I had all kinds of good ingredients. Also went to Mediterranean Bakery. More ingredients, and COOKIES! (I really need the recipe for the fruit roll cookies.)

Sunday was not a nice day for grilling, so no grill night this week. Instead, French Onion mac and cheese. It was quite nice. Also, salad. Sadly, we forgot to get a baguette on Saturday at the market. So Sunday AM I called Le Caprice. They had one! (They run out so quickly, and these days, they are only making one batch a day.) So we asked them to save it and ran over. Had to drive. We wanted a nice walk over there, but the rain began as we walked out the door. Stupid rain. Cookies and ice cream for dessert.

Monday was london broil marinated in a balsamic vinaigrette, cooked in the grill pan. It was good, but a bit tough. I'm not sure why - I am not great with steaks. (I miss Elliot and Nick.) Salad. Bread. (Leftover baguette) Broccoli. Cauliflower. Little fried potatoes. Cookies and ice cream for dessert.

Tuesday was spaghetti and buratta. I had some leftover broccoli, so I added that too. Very tasty. Also, salad. And garlic bread.(Leftover baguette) Cookies and ice cream for dessert.

Wednesday was cheese night. I mentioned we went to Wegs, right? So, couldn't resist the cheese. So, cheese, some leftover prosciutto, salad, apples, and beer jelly. Baguette from Le Caprice again. Stopped on my way to work, got a baguette JUST as they came out of the oven. Heroically resisted eating it ALL DAY. Ran out of cookies! So I made nutmeg feather cake, and had it with ice cream for dessert. (Not quite the same recipe, but close. I use all butter, no frosting.)

Tonight is leftover night. Repeat of Tuesday's dinner. Was supposed to be "eat down the freezer" night. Too many leftovers for that. Oh well.

[dracisk]

17 minutes ago, saf said:

French Onion mac and cheese

O. M. G.

[saf]

15 minutes ago, dracisk said:

O. M. G.

We used comte in place of gruyere (for $ reasons - Wegs had some affordable comte) Also, I made a bit more sauce, since I like my mac and cheese quite saucy. For years I thought I hated mac and cheese because it was too dry. Oh, and we made a half batch. Two of us had dinner, and he has had 3 lunches out of it, with one left for tomorrow.

I told my mom about it. I think this will be their project meal next week. 

[dracisk]

41 minutes ago, saf said:

I think this will be their project meal next week.

I think this will be my project meal at some point during this dark winter. I'm pretty sure Costco sells Gruyere. (I love Wegmans, too, but I'm at Costco every 2 weeks and rarely find myself at Wegmans.)

[saf]

3 minutes ago, dracisk said:

I think this will be my project meal at some point during this dark winter. I'm pretty sure Costco sells Gruyere. (I love Wegmans, too, but I'm at Costco every 2 weeks and rarely find myself at Wegmans.)

We don't have a Costco membership. Wegs is a 2-3 times a year expedition for us.

I am pretty sure Harris Teeter has Gruyere, as does Fresh Fields. Giant, I don't think so. Giant is where I shop most often.

[Pat]

Dinners the past week have been a mix of bought prepared and homemade. We did another Rose's at Home for last Tuesday & Wednesday. Both meals were ample and very good. We still haven't made it through the desserts all the way. We rarely eat dessert and 4 servings goes a long way for us.

The first meal was pretzel rolls and beer cheese; braised bratwurst, cabbage, and potatoes, plus honey mustard; and apple and cranberry strudel with creme anglais. We also had some leftover salad with this, topped with homemade cornbread croutons. The second dinner consisted of iceberg salad with thousand island dressing, spaghetti and meatballs (2 full meals worth), and banana pudding with nilla wafers. Both meals were very homey and comforting.

Thursday was,
Baked chicken drumsticks with bbq sauce
Roasted tahini cauliflower with pistachios
Mashed potato cakes
Roasted baby carrots
Buttered green peas

Friday:
Salad (butter lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, avocado; vinaigrette)
Tortilla chips with beer cheese from Rose's for dipping and Frontera tomato salsa
Moosewood Cookbook spaghetti squash casserole plus broccoli

Saturday:
Salad (butter lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, roasted cauliflower, kalamata olives; vinaigrette or thousand island dressing)
Tomato and thyme focaccia from Souk with seasoned evoo
Leftover Rose's spaghetti and meatballs [rounded out with more meatballs and sauce from Iron Gate via NRG order]
Baked brussels sprouts bites [halved sprouts topped with Parmesan, comte, bread crumbs, evoo; s+p]

Sunday:
Leftover salad
Tomato-thyme focaccia and seasoned evoo
Porter-braised kielbasa with hot mustard (NRG) and Rose's honey mustard
Leftover chicken drumsticks
Braised kale with vinegar and hot peppers (NRG)
Leftover roasted cauliflower with tahini and pistachios
Buttered baby red potatoes

My husband is not that fond of mustard but loves the honey mustard that came with the Rose's order. The Red Apron kielbasa was awesome. Their hot mustard was great with it. I cut it in chunks, browned in butter, and then simmered it with DC Brau's Penn Quarter Porter for about an hour, adding some water as the beer turned to syrup and hardened. I've still got this limited edition porter around from maybe two years ago. I loved this more than any food I've made in a while.

Tonight will be eggplant Parmesan from the NRG order, more of the Iron Gate meatballs from that order, steamed broccoli, some leftover pasta (penne, ricotta, tarragon, peas, and Parm), and the last of the Souk focaccia.

 

[dcandohio]

Mexican rice topped with shrimp. I added frozen Argentinian red shrimp from Trader Joe’s onto the top of the rice as it finished steaming. I should have also made a salad, but I was lazy. 

[dcandohio]

Soup of hot Italian sausage, white beans, kale. The base is homemade chicken stock with red wine, diced canned tomatoes, plus carrots, celery, onion, garlic and Italian herbs. 

[genericeric]

On 11/5/2020 at 7:21 PM, saf said:

We used comte in place of gruyere (for $ reasons - Wegs had some affordable comte) Also, I made a bit more sauce, since I like my mac and cheese quite saucy. For years I thought I hated mac and cheese because it was too dry. Oh, and we made a half batch. Two of us had dinner, and he has had 3 lunches out of it, with one left for tomorrow.

I told my mom about it. I think this will be their project meal next week. 

Did you remove the onions before making the sauce?  Some comments on the recipe indicate a step may have been missed in the online version

[Pat]

Romaine, cherry tomatoes, green bell pepper, cucumbers, focaccia croutons; vinaigrette
Chili
Grilled cheese and turkey with red cabbage

The red cabbage was left from the Rose's order, sweet and spicy. It's the second time I've put it on turkey and cheese sandwiches. This time was grilled, using comte for the cheese. The turkey is oven-roasted from TJ's. Really good deli meat. I think it's organic. Forget if it's their own or another brand. I've been buying it on my sporadic trips there. I recognize it when I see it.

The chili was pretty hot, made with an assortment of peppers I had on hand: fresh jalapeno, anaheim, and serrano; fried Calabrian chiles left from the Rose's delivery; and adobo sauce from canned chipotles. It was a pork chili, using a 2lb. cut of pork shoulder from Red Apron. I used some tomato paste from a tube, boxed chicken broth, and remainder of a jar of TJ's marinara. I was a little unsure about the marinara but it worked just fine.

[Pat]

When I made the chili, I had planned to add some red beans I had in my old Rancho Gordo stash (Sangre de Toro). I soaked them 11 hours and cooked them in the crock pot all day. They still weren't soft enough when it came time to finalizing the chili, so I added a can of red kidney beans instead and put the others (which, by that time, had cooked 15 hours) in the refrigerator.

So, yesterday, envisioning a kind of red beans and rice thing, I sauteed onion, celery, and green bell pepper, some garlic, and Penzey's Cajun Seasoning. Then added the beans and the liquid from them I had saved, and a couple cups of boxed chicken broth and simmered it all. It took 2+ more hours and the beans were finally done.

The meal these were being added on to was black pepper tofu and brown rice. The tofu is a Post recipe from 2013. Very peppery. Everything smelled like frying after I was done, but the tofu came out nice. It made a lot. I had planned to halve the recipe but had two blocks of tofu with use by dates of November 12, so I went with the recipe as scaled by default (i.e., for 6 servings). I didn't add all the tofu back into the sauce, so I have a container of extra fried tofu to use soon. I also declined to make the sauce as written -- with a full stick of butter -- and only used 2 tbsp. of butter.

I plated the rice in the center, with beans overlapping it on one side and tofu and sauced veggies on the other.

Uh, we also had leftover salad.

[Katya4me]

Last night was shrimp and pork lo mein.  I followed a recipe I'd used before, but we both thought the sauce was a bit lacking.  I went back and mixed together some chili garlic paste, fish sauce and sesame oil, then added to the remaining dish and that seemed to be more what we were looking for. 

[saf]

On 11/11/2020 at 9:05 AM, genericeric said:

Did you remove the onions before making the sauce?  Some comments on the recipe indicate a step may have been missed in the online version

I did, for exactly that reason. I don't know that I needed to. Seemed non-essential.

Ah, running behind again.

So, Sunday was grill day again - the boy was soooo happy. Pork chops with onions.  (It wanted vidalias. I got cippolinos at the market and those were great.) Salad, carrots, potatoes, zucchini, rosemary bread. More nutmeg cake.

Monday was an artichoke for me, and a squash pasta thing for him. We got a squash in a produce box order from south mountain. I don't eat squash, so he had to come up with something he wanted to eat for dinner, and then for a lot of lunches. Oh, also salad and rosemary bread. And nutmeg cake.

Tuesday we had folks over to sit around the fire pit. My brother was here, so 5 of us in the backyard. Chili. Cupcakes that one of the friends brought. And marshmallows. And other s'more stuff too. (Although my brother and I call them smashes, but that's what our grandfather called them.) We were going to do that on Wednesday afternoon, but with the rain coming, that didn't seem like a good idea.

Wednesday was french onion soup out of the freezer, and salad, not out of the freezer, and leftover cupcakes. (It was going to be cauliflower soup, but the brother didn't want that. Apparently he doesn't like cauliflower?) (side note - so glad it was so warm. We were able to keep the windows open while he was here. He left this AM.)

So the cauliflower soup was tonight. Along with salad, and grilled cheese on rosemary bread. Mine had just cheese, he added pork roll to his.

[Pat]

Tonight was
Romaine salad with Campari tomatoes, chopped yellow bell pepper, avocado, walnuts, feta; thousand island or ranch dressing
Leftover eggplant Parmesan
Leftover penne with peas, ricotta, and tarragon
Leftover meatballs in sauce

[Pat]

Soup and sandwich night. Spinach and cheese tortellini in brodo with baby spinach and Parmesan; chicken salad sandwiches -- cubed poached breast, craisins, raisins, walnuts, and celery on lettuce and TJ's sourdough toast; Utz potato chips.

I dug out some Trickling Springs vanilla ice cream I still have, softened it some, and broke in bits of homemade pistachio brittle. Great combination. Kind of butter brickle-ish.

[Katya4me]

Dinner tonight was sous vide pork with curried spaghetti squash. 

I wish it didn't end up using 4 dishes to make but the pork came out perfectly cooked and the squash mixture is very good. I was out of carrots so I swapped in a bell pepper instead.

 

[Pat]

Tonight was a Jose Andres recipe for paella, Smoky Paella with Shrimp and Squid.

I found it at Food & Wine. The timing is perfect on this. It works really well. The only thing I changed was to use 1 lb. of frozen squid bodies instead of 1/2 lb baby squid. That was because I'd had the squid frozen in a block for a couple of years and there was no viable way only to thaw half of it for this recipe. I was impressed with how easy this was and how perfectly it turned out. Total keeper of a recipe.

We also had leftover salad with vinaigrette and a small cheese board: camembert and comte; sliced pepperoni; Triscuits; and onion-dill  crackers from NRG.

[saf]

Grill night!

Chicken thighs marinated in Nando's peri peri sauce, medium. Salad. Dinner rolls (a new item) from Ravenhook. Potatoes, carrots, yellow summer squash. Cookies (snickerdoodles, ginger cookies, chocolate chip cookies) and brown sugar vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Early dinner, in order to avoid the rain/wind.

[Pat]

More salad, leftover paella, and a cauliflower and ground beef skillet finished in the oven topped with a bunch of colby jack cheese.