Dinner - The Polyphonic Food Blog

[saf]

Still working on the freezer, kinda. We had that night last week, week before?, of pigs in a blanket, and that left us a sheet of puff pastry. And mushrooms are popular here. So we made a mushroom wellington. (Mushrooms from King Mushrooms at the Columbia Heights Farm Market.) Quite tasty. Needs some sort of sauce. Also, salad.

(Now the boy wants to make Beef Wellington even more than he did before.)

Also, I made some very delicious peanut butter chocolate brownie bars over the weekend. Left some with our friends at Red Rocks, some with our zoom dinner companions, and have some here. This is an excellent dessert. I will have to make this again. And I can only assume that the black cocoa that I got for Christmas and used for part of the cocoa in the recipe added some depth.

[dcandohio]

It’s really nice to be with my sister, and to be dining with someone and sharing food instead of eating alone. Last night we grilled a T-bone and a fat ribeye, and shared them, along with a giant Caesar salad. There was king cake for dessert. 

[saf]

Stuffed shells! (Cheese. Newman Sockerooni sauce) Garlic bread. Salad. I forgot the raisins I meant to put on the salad. Ooops.

[Pat]

I got another Mercato order from District Fishwife today, so tonight featured cod, specifically an Ellie Krieger recipe for Linguine and Cod in Saffron White Wine Sauce. It was excellent. We also had steamed broccoli and a salad of mesclun, parsley, and cashews with feta or blue cheese (me! I'm always the blue cheese!). Very good meal. I had some of the same 2019 Di Lenardo Pinot Grigio from NRG to drink that was used in the sauce. (My husband had Kirkland Cabernet Sauvignon.)

[saf]

Last night: Baked chicken thighs marinated in medium Nando's sauce, salad, bread.

Tonight: Mac and cheese with vegetables (broccoli, fennel, sweet red pepper) and salad.

Also, cookies. I made some cookies. Peanut butter ones and ginger ones.

On 1/26/2021 at 9:08 PM, Pat said:

(me! I'm always the blue cheese!).

My husband, one of my regular dinner companions in normal times and a zoom dinner friend now, and one of my good college friends would say that too. I like blue cheese a lot, but all of them, they would eat it for any and all courses of their meal.

[Pat]

Last night was mostly an Instant Pot meal. I'm still trying to get the hang of some of the cycles and the timing, etc. Pork chops came out just right somehow, even though I didn't know what I was doing. The cabbage should have been cut into smaller pieces, however, to be done in the time allotted. The leftover cabbage can stand more cooking. The dressing used the rest of the challah as the bread component, which is a bit at odds with pork and oysters...but delicious!

Instant Pot pork chops and mustard & vinegar braised red cabbage with prunes and shallots
Oyster and pork sage sausage dressing
Leftover pear and celery gratin

[saf]

56 minutes ago, Pat said:

The dressing used the rest of the challah as the bread component, which is a bit at odds with pork and oysters...but delicious!

Eh, just call it brioche.

[Pat]

On 1/29/2021 at 4:22 PM, saf said:

Eh, just call it brioche.

Close enough, except for the butter. It really does keep well and makes a great stuffing. More of that tonight.

Spring mix, radishes, and pecans; vinaigrette
Chicken fennel stew with wild rice; seasoned oyster crackers
Leftover sausage and oyster stuffing
Roasted delicata squash stuffed with beet greens, wild rice, cranberries, and pecans; white cheddar

I went freestyle on the stew, but sort of followed this recipe for the squash, scaled down because I only had one (albeit enormous) squash. Used beet greens instead of kale.

There was excess wild rice (made in the Instant Pot) for the squash, so I decided to add some to the stew near the end. Good decision. It did kind of feel like being in that restaurant where you figure they must have a lot of...let's see...pecans and wild rice...because they're popping up across the menu.🙃

[Pat]

There was a thawed chicken breast half in the refrigerator that I couldn't refreeze without cooking, so I decided to cook and shred it to top nachos. Seemed like a good snowy Sunday appetizer. Then I discovered the Fritos I had stashed away were farther past their best by date than the tortilla chips, so it became Frito pie instead.

I cooked up the chicken in some oil with various hot spices, jalapeno, and shallot (how did I end up with more shallots than onions?). I also put a little water in to aid moist cooking. Once cooked through, I shredded the chicken and layered it and its accompaniments in with the Fritos and a mix of shredded cheddar and pepper jack. I topped everything with dollops of sour cream when it came out of the oven.

Everything else was leftover or from premade: braised red cabbage and prunes; sausage and oyster stuffing; and meatloaf topped with bacon.

The meatloaf was a mini creation in small aluminum pie pan, made out of the extra 8 oz. ground beef I had when making the harissa pasta the other day. I added all of the regular meatloaf ingredients, baked it to just done (adding parcooked bacon near the end), and refrigerated.

So we had chicken, beef, and pork tonight --plus a couple oysters -- but not a whole lot of any one of them.

[saf]

Fondue!

There was leftover bread last week. A LOT of leftover bread. So I froze it. But I didn't want it to sit too long in the freezer. So we had fondue. Raclette, emenntaler, Eyrie Pinot Gris. (They had a really great sale this fall. So much fun to get wine in the mail!) Bread, broccoli. And of course, salad.

(There's still leftover bread in the freezer. Now what?)

[curls]

14 hours ago, saf said:

Fondue!

There was leftover bread last week. A LOT of leftover bread. So I froze it. But I didn't want it to sit too long in the freezer. So we had fondue. Raclette, emenntaler, Eyrie Pinot Gris. (They had a really great sale this fall. So much fun to get wine in the mail!) Bread, broccoli. And of course, salad.

(There's still leftover bread in the freezer. Now what?)

How about bread pudding?

[saf]

10 hours ago, curls said:

How about bread pudding?

I like bread pudding.

Dinner tonight was chili verde out of the freezer, over baked potato. Guacamole. And salad. And it was good.

[Katya4me]

Bread pudding, both savory and sweet, is delicious.

We decided to try something a little different. https://www.pizza-porta.com/blog/2019/5/2/cubano-pizza-and-banana-pudding-pizza

We did the Cubano last night and the banana pudding one tonight.  My husband was kind of in sugar shock after 2 slices. I had 1 slice of the banana tonight and had a leftover slice of the Cubano pizza from last night.

[Pat]

Leftover Frito pie
Leftover pork chop and wild rice
Warm kale and potato salad with bacon
Leftover braised cabbage and prunes

[curls]

11 hours ago, saf said:

I like bread pudding.

Dinner tonight was chili verde out of the freezer, over baked potato. Guacamole. And salad. And it was good.

Great! You could use up the rest of your left over frozen bread cubes and make sweet and/or savory bread pudding. 

[Pat]

On 1/31/2021 at 8:39 PM, saf said:

(There's still leftover bread in the freezer. Now what?)

If you make this, let us know. (I wish I'd seen this when I had all the leftover challah, though I don't have almond paste on hand...)

[saf]

3 minutes ago, Pat said:

If you make this, let us know. (I wish I'd seen this when I had all the leftover challah, though I don't have almond paste on hand...)

Oooh, I was looking at that when he posted it. But this is Italian bread, so will have to consider if it will work. And I will buy almond paste for that.

[saf]

Dinner tonight - salad. Chicken cacciatore (shredded chicken from the freezer, mushrooms, half a leftover red bell pepper, end of a jar of spaghetti sauce, fettuccini) Leftover rosemary rolls from the freezer.

Later, chocolate angel food cake and absinthe ice cream. (Finally finished that bottle of absinthe!)

[Pat]

Tonight was mostly leftovers (pork and oyster stuffing, wild rice stuffed delicata squash, and chicken fennel stew), with a pair of new offerings, both involving goat cheese. We split a goat cheese and mushroom turnover from Souk (so flaky!) and also had a French lentil salad with goat cheese and walnuts.

The salad recipe, from David Lebovitz's My Paris Kitchen, was originally on the menu for Thanksgiving. Then it got moved to Christmas...and on to New Year's. After going round and around, yes, we finally had it for Groundhog Day. When I first planned to make it, I dug around and found my copy of the book to work from that. By the time it got to February, I just used the copy at Serious Eats.

It doesn't take real long to make and comes out perfectly. Nice and hearty for snowy weather. It makes a lot of salad, so we'll be eating it for some time.

[Pat]

I'd never gotten any of the Hometown Harvest prepared meals from South Mountain Creamery but I went for a box of 4 salads in this week's delivery. For one thing, we're real low on lettuce and other salad fixings (though lettuce and cherry tomatoes came in an accompanying produce box) and, also, I'm tired of making salads. I thought I'd see how it went. We split the Greek salad* tonight -- two ample portions plus enough left I'll add it to my lunch tomorrow. It was quite fresh and bright. The dressing was tzatziki. I didn't want much dressing, so my husband had almost all of it. For splitting into three salads, it's not enough dressing, but that's not a big deal for us.

We also had more of the lentil salad from last night. Lots of fiber! And for fat and simple carbs, we had more of the harissa pasta from the other night. I added some mascarpone to it to make the sauce a little creamier and I also added Good Mother Stallard beans, kind of going for a pasta fagioli thing but not real soupy. More fiber.

The beans were from Rancho Gordo, purchased sometime more than a decade ago. I soaked them for 6 hours and then they went two 25 minute rounds in the InstantPot on high pressure. I'd gotten off the bean kick for a while, but these beans still have it in them. It just takes a lot of time.

 

*Greek salad: mixed greens, bell pepper, red onion, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, kalamata olives, pepperoncini, tzatziki dressing (greek yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, salt, dill).

[saf]

Salad, as ever. And then, corn risotto (also mushrooms). The boy loves to make risotto. We put a little truffle oil on it - we have a bottle that has been sitting around a while that needs to be used. Need to think of other things to do with it.

2 minutes ago, Pat said:

I'd never gotten any of the Hometown Harvest prepared meals from South Mountain Creamery but I went for a box of 4 salads in this week's delivery.

I wonder about those meals. Glad to hear they might be worth trying.

[KeithA]

Do you ever feel underappreciated as the cook? It is such a shame that I have a house of bland, unadventuresome eaters. Last night I made SeriousEats Smashed Sunchokes from our CSA cooked in butter with fresh thyme (delicious and different, but only I ate them), tilapia sauteed with white wine and butter sauce with lots of fresh dill and parsley (my wife did like this one FWIW), and stir fried napa cabbage with sesame oil, garlic, ginger, pickled red chilis, onions (it wasn't very spicy at all but again only eaten by me). The others mostly ate old challah bread and fish sticks with plain steamed broccoli. I just can't with eating the same boring bland food every week but it is what the family wants. Remind me to never open a restaurant I would be so sad when the boring items are the most popular.

On a related note - anyone has good but crowd pleaser recipes for beets, cabbage, turnips, or radishes? We get all of these uncommon vegetables for us in the CSA and I'm the only one who eats them.

BTW - David Liebowitz's pickled radish recipe is awesome. 

[Katya4me]

1 hour ago, KeithA said:

Do you ever feel underappreciated as the cook? It is such a shame that I have a house of bland, unadventuresome eaters. Last night I made SeriousEats Smashed Sunchokes from our CSA cooked in butter with fresh thyme (delicious and different, but only I ate them), tilapia sauteed with white wine and butter sauce with lots of fresh dill and parsley (my wife did like this one FWIW), and stir fried napa cabbage with sesame oil, garlic, ginger, pickled red chilis, onions (it wasn't very spicy at all but again only eaten by me). The others mostly ate old challah bread and fish sticks with plain steamed broccoli. I just can't with eating the same boring bland food every week but it is what the family wants. Remind me to never open a restaurant I would be so sad when the boring items are the most popular.

On a related note - anyone has good but crowd pleaser recipes for beets, cabbage, turnips, or radishes? We get all of these uncommon vegetables for us in the CSA and I'm the only one who eats them.

BTW - David Liebowitz's pickled radish recipe is awesome. 

Have you tried making okonomiyaki or will they eat coleslaw?  My husband isn't a fan of beets or cabbage either, which partially contributed to us moving away from CSAs and toward Misfits Market.  We have tossed diced turnips, radishes and beets onto sheet pans with potatoes, squash, etc and roasted them.  Little salt and pepper, not too complicated, but a tasty side for almost anything.   If you mix them with potatoes, could you do mashed turnips?  I'm a fan of pickles, so I make up quick pickles and then slowly eat them on sandwiches.  I've made this recipe with daikons, carrots and cucumbers and it'll last for a couple of months in the fridge.

We didn't grill it, but we did this Honey Sriracha Chicken pizza with the third dough ball.  We both liked it, and I've added it to my list to try on naan pizza when the weather is warmer.

[saf]

3 hours ago, KeithA said:

On a related note - anyone has good but crowd pleaser recipes for beets, cabbage, turnips, or radishes? We get all of these uncommon vegetables for us in the CSA and I'm the only one who eats them.

As Katya said above, roasted veg are good. They make a decent side dish, stir into pasta sauce well, can be stirred into stuffing/dressing, used as sandwich topping, mixed into mac and cheese...

For specifics - 

I am no help with radishes. I don't like them. My husband does. He eats them on salads. A friend eats radish sandwiches. Thin bread, thin butter, thin radishes, salt and pepper. I have been told they are good roasted but have not tried that. (I am dubious because of how much I don't like them.)

I love beets. I roast them and put them on lettuce salads. I eat beet salad - roast the beets, add a little goat cheese or feta or buratta or nice little mozzarella pearls, a light vinaigrette, maybe some greens like lettuce or other salad things, some chopped nuts, and maybe if you aren't me some orange slices or some cherry tomatoes.  I also make borscht, which uses cabbage too. You can go simple or complex. Do they like fried things? Beet Latkes. I make beet caviar and eat it on crackers, or pumpernickel bread. Beet slaw? (Please note - stupid recipe tells you to get raw, shelled pistachios. Then it has you toast them! Just get unsalted unshelled pistachios.) Beet chips?

What kind of cabbage? If red, german style cabbage with roasted pork or with Sauerbraten. Or brats and red cabbage (also uses beets). If white, I don't generally like cabbage slaw, but I really like this slaw. Also this one. Both go nicely on pulled pork sandwiches from the crockpot.

Turnips - aside from general roasting or mashing with potatoes (neeps and tatties), how about hash? Replace some potatoes with turnips.

5 hours ago, KeithA said:

Remind me to never open a restaurant I would be so sad when the boring items are the most popular.

Have you ever seen the movie "Big Night?" The other day, as the boy was making risotto, he kept cracking himself up by saying, "You can't have spaghetti as a side with risotto!"

[Pat]

The simplest for cabbage is cole slaw, if you're not looking to cook it. This is a good Molly Stevens recipe for braised green cabbage.

Red cabbage is nice braised with some balsamic vinegar added to the water or broth as it cooks. The longer it cooks, the more it breaks down and the sweeter it gets. Also great with fruit. I put prunes in it the most recent times I made it. It amazes me how sweet cabbage can be.

My favorite recipe for using turnips is a beef pot pie recipe I found in NY Magazine in the 80s. It requires having a bunch of other of other ingredients you might not have on hand, though. I can post it if you want. I used to make it at least once a winter but haven't made it in ages. Mostly I just add them to stews or braises or roast alongside and mix with buttered potatoes.

This is a recipe I'm hoping to make sometime fairly soon, so long as I can acquire both pork tenderloin and turnips at the same time. (Would probably work with skinless boneless chicken breasts or fish fillets too.)

I love radishes. I have roasted them but prefer them raw. A fine julienne in a salad just adds some pepperiness without them really standing out. Excellent as a taco garnish.

Beets I usually roast (red ones also great with balsamic). They're wonderful sliced or cubed in salad with feta or goat cheese.  If you're looking for a project, this is a spectacular recipe for red and yellow beets I may be making again soon, since I have most of the ingredients on hand. Again, I have written down how I adapted the instructions if you're interested in seeing that.

Our dinner tonight was leftover chicken fennel stew with wild rice, a spinach salad with bacon and tomato from the SMC delivery, leftover harissa pasta with beans, and (the only new thing) air fryer Buffalo cauliflower florets. The cauliflower was crispy and tasted good but, honestly, by the time it was done, I wished I'd just roasted them on a sheet pan in the oven. That would have been much less fuss.

[Katya4me]

Another thought I just had was wondering if you could slide some sliced beet and turnip into a Spanish omelette.  With as deliciously unhealthy as those are, it may go unnoticed.

[Pat]

We had the last 2 wings from our All-Purpose meal tonight and a bunch of other leftovers: the last of the chicken fennel stew; the last of the harissa pasta; more stuffed delicata squash, and a combination of two different salads: kale and potato plus lentil with goat cheese and walnuts. I had some excess lemon vinaigrette that I added to boost the combined vinaigrettes already soaked into the salads. I had an extra egg that wouldn't fit in the pot when I hard-boiled a bunch today, so I microwaved it as an omelette-style egg, kind of a crepe. That was sliced and used to top the combination salad bowl.

[Katya4me]

Last night was spaghetti with sausage marinara sauce. My husband wanted to try a variant garlic bread so he made garlic butter pull-apart bread.  Pretty tasty and if you aren't going for the toasty crunch, it's really good.

Today was an old favorite version of shepherd pie.  Hubby made it, so it's a little spicier this time but still tasty. We had some instant potato mix in the pantry from a camping trip, so used that quite successfully.

[saf]

On 2/4/2021 at 11:40 AM, KeithA said:

On a related note - anyone has good but crowd pleaser recipes for beets, cabbage, turnips, or radishes? We get all of these uncommon vegetables for us in the CSA and I'm the only one who eats them.

I thought about you while I was reading the new issue of the magazine that Giant puts out the other day. Check out some of their recipes - generally easy, and not too "weird." 

[Katya4me]

Tonight was bits of things.  I heated up some Quorn nuggets to have with BBQ sauce.  Along with these, I had Korean cheese corn with pita chips. I had a bit of BBQ chicken left from pizza earlier this week, so I tossed it in with the corn.  

[Pat]

Super Bowl food tonight was soup, salad, and scones. I made this Good Mother Stallard Bean Stew from the NY Times with the rest of the beans from the other night. I adapted it a little (also added a chopped rib of celery, a minced jalapeno, minced clove of garlic; used bacon fat to cook the vegetables but didn't add bacon or pancetta; had no fresh rosemary so omitted herbs; used beet greens for the tender greens). Man, was it good. I didn't measure the bean liquor. What they called for didn't seem enough, so I just eyeballed it. I still have extra liquid I can add to leftovers if they need it.

The bacon fat was from cooking bacon for these scones, which I kind of messed up but they came out just fine anyway. Misshapen but they tasted good and had a perfect crumb.

We also had more of the combination salad we had last night.

[dcandohio]

It was kind of weird to watch the Super Bowl solo, but I made habanero honey chicken wings and a Romaine salad and watched anyway. 

[Pat]

Tonight:
Spring mix with radishes, cherry tomatoes, shaved red onion; bottled ranch
Leftover Good Mother Stallard bean stew; oyster crackers
Deviled chicken legs
Short grain brown rice with mixed vegetables

The chicken was Green Circle chicken from D'Artagnan, which was amazingly moist and flavorful. It is good chicken. The recipe was an old Pierre Franey one from the Times. It looks fussy but it's not (except...our Giant order arrived early and interrupted prep and threw planned timing out the window). Excellent recipe, made even better by excellent quality chicken.

I cooked the rice in the InstantPot and dumped the vegetables in after that cooked for everything to heat through. The vegetables were what was left of a bag I keep around in the freezer for soup, but I needed the freezer space and the bag had been open a while. Just some butter and salt for a solid side dish. It was a simple, good meal...once I finished running around frantically, putting groceries away🙃.

 

 

[ktmoomau]

I need to read through this thread more often.  It makes me a little less depressed about the amount of home cooking we all are doing.  I mean I cook a lot all the time, I just feel like right now it is less of a choice and more of a lack of options sort of thing...

Anywho, recent dinners:

Number1Sons CSA salad- roasted quick pickled beets, roasted butternut squash and fingerling sweet potatoes, mixed greens (man they deliver good greens, I forget the purveyor), watermelon radish, blue cheese, bacon and balsamic vinaigrette.

Beef Adobo Korean influence tacos, a little refried beans, topped beef adobo, with kicky kimchi from Number1sons, greens, yum yum sauce from a random delivery. These were very messy and saucy, but delicious. 

Asian Noodle Root Vegetable stir fry (carrots, radish, rutabaga, plus green beans- not a root vegetable, but they were in the fridge and needed used up) with chicken stir fried with miso, and a sauce I made with odds and ends from my Mother's cabinet- terriyaki, soy, marsala cooking wine, white wine vinegar, garlic, dried shallots, ginger, miso, sriracha sauce. Tossed with cooked spaghetti.  My poor Mother has been craving Asian food as Garrett County is sorely lacking in unusual take out options (they do have one Chinese restaurant) so I made a really large batch so she could have cold noodle leftovers.

Beef adobo over mashed sweet potatoes and butternut squash.  Topped with sauteed cabbage and leek with cumin, fennel and some garlic powder.

Turkey noodle soup made with some frozen potlicker broth from a pot of greens made previously, turkey I pulled and froze from our post Christmas, "Christmas Meal", egg noodles, tuscan kale, I also dumped the gravy I made and froze into the broth and added a bit of chicken stock and lots of pepper.  Eaten with some really good Breadfurst bread that was delivered with my CSA goods.

 

[Pat]

Made skinless boneless chicken breasts tonight. I kept changing my mind about what I wanted to do with them and settled on this recipe from The Kitchn. I didn't have the full amount of chicken, so I had (delicious) sauce left over, beyond what I need for the leftover piece of chicken. Already making plans for it.

I steamed broccoli in the InstantPot to accompany. (Zero minutes cooking time since the heating time is enough to cook the broccoli. That was weirdly cool. I'm easily impressed these days.)

Rounding things out, we also had Mollie Katzen's chilaquile casserole, which I've been making for a really long time but hadn't done recently. A classic.

 

[Pat]

Last night I made buttermilk cornbread, making use of bacon fat left from making BLTs for lunch. We had it with an instantpot beef-a-roni type deal and a salad (romaine, cherry tomatoes, hard-boiled egg, avocado, cashews; vinaigrette).

[Katya4me]

Last night the plan was to do mushroom tacos.   Due to a grocery ordering mishap, I ended up with 4 oz. of mushrooms, instead of 14.  Also, Vidalia onions instead of yellow onions and all of my avocados were firmer than I wanted.  But continuing right along, I cut the recipe in half and we each ended up with 1 tasty taco.  I made the salsa first (halved this as well) and while it's like no other salsa I've had before, it's absolutely delicious and we ate quite a bit of it just with tortilla chips.  I had a small amount leftover that went in the fridge and unlike other sauces that linger in the fridge after the recipe is made, I suspect this one won't last much past today.

[Pat]

Tonight was the end of the bean stew, more of the deviled chicken legs and rice with mixed vegetables, plus leftover bacon-egg-cheese scones and cornbread. I also made the beet and goat cheese flan I mentioned a number of posts back. I made and garnished it with red beets (instead of making it with yellow and garnishing with red). I have creme fraiche somewhere but sour cream was closer to hand and I was tired by that point. This is what it looked like (it made two of these).

 

[Pat]

Friday we got the NRG Valentine's dinner special plus an assortment of their canapes. We've still got a little bit left, one dessert and a few individual canapes.

We got two completely different menus to sample everything: Lobster bisque and roasted beet and goat cheese salad; pan-roasted salmon with couscous and roasted sirloin with mashed potatoes; and dark chocolate mousse and cheesecake. The only thing left from that menu is cheesecake. We split the mousse last night for actual V-Day and it was really good. It came with candied cocoa nibs and sea salt flakes for garnishing. The nibs were fantastic. (Since I'm not a big chocolate fan, it's saying something that I had this reaction to the mousse.)

The canapes all came with dipping sauces, one a chutney. There were spring rolls, veggie samosas, cheese-stuffed mushrooms, and lemongrass dumplings. I think we both liked the dumplings the most. I will definitely order those again.

To drink we had champagne I'd gotten in an NRG order before New Year's but never opened: Drappier, Carte d’Or, Champagne Brut. This is wonderful champagne ($45; which appears to be its going price online).

I also found some Guinness stashed away and made Black Velvet cocktails with the opened bottle. Last night, while it was no longer still overtly bubbly but still had a nice bite, I mixed the last of it with some homemade cranberry-orange sauce, a splash of oj, and a squeeze of date syrup for two drinks to precede Valentine's Day dinner.

Last night, to accompany the chocolate mousse and the champagne drink, I dipped into my DeCecco bucatini stash to make pasta with a spicy, crabby cream sauce. It came out even better than I imagined. I used the Cajun crab dip I had from South Mountain Creamery (having some on crackers didn't use much and I didn't know how long it would stay fresh--has both real and imitation crab), a little of their luscious heavy cream, and a splash or two of Hangar One Chipotle vodka (2006-10-06B), which I originally learned about here a very long time ago and remember using in a gazpacho once. I bought it at Schneider's and the last little bit of it is still in the downstairs refrigerator door, the only place that can hold a bottle that tall.

In addition to assorted canapes, the meal was rounded out with leafy greens: Sautéed rainbow chard leaves and stems and beet stems; balsamic vinegar, and raisins

Sandwiched in between, Saturday night we mostly had leftovers:
Salad (baby spinach, baby wild arugula, cherry tomatoes, toasted walnuts, hard-boiled egg; bacon, grated Pecorino Romano; bottled ranch)
Cornbread
Stuffed mushrooms [NRG] (most of them eaten Friday)
Samosas [NRG]
Leftover chicken leg
Leftover chicken breast with sauce
Leftover beet flan
Leftover rice and vegetables + roasted garlic
Spinach wilted in chicken broth + roasted garlic + Parmesan

 

 

[KeithA]

We got to have a Vday Date night so I tried to get a little fancy. We started with my own improvised creation whipped up from leftovers: Pita wedges with a shmear of beet hummus, topped with slices of roasted beets and goat cheese with dill:

Then, we had red-wine braised lamb shank with farro and a side dish of kohlrabi, carrot, purple radish and apple slaw (adapted from Alice Waters cookbook):

[Katya4me]

Dinner last night and quite delicious: http://www.notquitenigella.com/2020/08/10/sushi-bake-recipe/. Makes a huge amount of food, we'll get at least 5 meals out of this pan.  We also made this for dessert:   https://aprettylifeinthesuburbs.com/cupids-cloud-a-valentines-day-dessert/ and had these cheesecake bars today. My husband isn't a fan of food coloring so he blitzed some frozen berries and added them to the cheesecake mixture for the swirl and I quite approved of this change.

[Pat]

Cornbread
Black bean soup
Leftover beef-a-roni
Leftover spinach with roasted garlic

The only new thing wasn't really new as I built a black bean soup using canned beans, bits of veggies in the refrigerator, and the leftover bean broth from the Good Mother Stallard beans we've finished off. Garnishes were sour cream, cheddar, crumbled bacon, and green onion tops. I used a little of the fat from cooking the bacon to saute the vegetables (green and red onions, garlic, red bell pepper, carrot, and celery). A splash of good sherry also figured into this as did some Rancho Gordo NM red chile powder..

I thought it seemed like a good winter Sunday night meal, and then realized it was Monday🙃.

[KeithA]

Chicken soup with egg noodles

Clementine cake

Thanks to my wife - I got the night off from cooking.

[Pat]

Last night's menu as it came (fell?) together was random-ish but surprisingly good.

I like eating salads but don't enjoy making them so much, especially on a near daily basis, so I ordered more salads in this week's South Mountain Creamery delivery.  The combinations of things they propose strike me as trying too hard, but most of the basic components are good quality. Notable exception: The Lebanon bologna in last night's salad was way too smoky tasting and in an artificial, "was this doused in liquid smoke?" kind of way.

More of Tony Chittum's meatballs in pomodoro sauce from Iron Gate via NRG. These meatballs have been a go-to delivery item for much of the last year. We both quite like them. Sometimes I serve them over pasta. Other times I doctor them a bit to utilize other ingredients, as I did yesterday. I had 8 oz. of button mushrooms that were in remarkably good shape for being as old as they were. Earlier in the afternoon, I sliced and sauteed them in butter with garlic and dried fines herbes (which I buy and then never seem to use) and then mixed them into the meatballs and sauce near the end of their heating time.

More Jerusalem artichokes arrived yesterday and I hadn't used the ones we already had. The new ones were organic and absolutely gorgeous. I roasted the whole lot of them (probably about 2 lbs.) and served them with the leftover cream sauce from the lemon garlic chicken I made a while back. Very, very good combination.

Tl;dr version:
Italian chopped salad [SMC]
Iron Gate meatballs in pomodoro sauce + sautéed mushrooms with fine herbes and garlic
Leftover beet flan
Roasted Jerusalem artichokes in cream sauce

[saf]

Well, it's been a while since I posted and now I am forgetting meals! That's what happens when your house projects get big and eat your brain, I guess.

So last night was supposed to be jambalaya. But I let the rice cook too long and it fell apart. So more like jambalaya flavored porridge. Hated it. I hope not to make that mistake again! But the salad was good.

Earlier this week we had mushroom, corn (trying to use this summer's corn, which was grilled, stripped off the cobs, and frozen), and leftover pork roast quesadillas. That was very good, as was the salad.

Tonight we are going to eat the Christmas present we got from my sister before it sits too long in the freezer. I am dubious. I love all the components, but as a combination, I am dubious. She sent us a frozen package of potato pancake brisket sandwiches. Also, salad. (She didn't send the salad.)

[DIShGo]

Tonight we are enjoying poke. The delicious tuna was delivered by Georgetown Butcher. They have fantastic fish there. Last night we enjoyed their halibut, pan-seared, with a butter, caper and lemon sauce, on mashed Yukon gold potatoes. 

[Katya4me]

Last night was chillier than I hope so my plans for grilled salmon became broiled salmon.  We had that over leftover cheesy grits and it was delicious.  I broiled 4 fillets so tonight was dinner salads topped with the remaining 2 salmon fillets. And cheesecake bars for dessert.

[Pat]

4 hours ago, saf said:

Tonight we are going to eat the Christmas present we got from my sister before it sits too long in the freezer. I am dubious. I love all the components, but as a combination, I am dubious. She sent us a frozen package of potato pancake brisket sandwiches.

I get the concept but...yeah. You can always serve them disassembled if reality dashes your hopes.

Tonight mostly leftovers again. We finished off the black bean soup, chilaquile casserole and beef-a-roni, had more cornbread, split a baked sweet potato, and had some of a salad I made that will provide more meals to come (spring mix and wild baby arugula; winter radishes; bacon; hard-boiled egg; feta; ranch)

[saf]

Just now, Pat said:

I get the concept but...yeah. You can always serve them disassembled if reality dashes your hopes.

Well, we won't find out until tomorrow. Forgot to put them in the fridge to thaw! So, tomorrow. Tonight was freezer enchiladas, which we can bake straight from frozen. Those we made, so I knew what to expect, and we were happy. Chicken, black beans, red sauce, cheese. Red sauce on top. Also, salad.

[saf]

23 hours ago, Pat said:

I get the concept but...yeah. You can always serve them disassembled if reality dashes your hopes.

Well, the boy liked them as presented. I ate the parts separately. I am not just all that enthralled by brisket, except sometimes as BBQ. So it was OK, and there is more, and it will get eaten, but he likes them a LOT better than I do.