Dinner - The Polyphonic Food Blog

[Pat]

I used to make Mardi Gras Pasta* every year right around this time but it's been years since I did it. It was what was for dinner last night, along with sourdough bread and a salad of baby lettuces, Campari tomatoes, and feta. I used boneless pork loin chops I'd gotten on sale instead of cutting up a small pork loin roast, and it was less than the amount of meat called for. I also typically use more than the amount of meat listed, so it was a less meaty sauce than I usually make for this. Still delicious. The cinnamon and almonds in the sauce really make this dish.

 

*PASTA  DI CARNEVALE (Mardi Gras Pasta) from Mimmetta Lo Monte's Classic Sicilian Cooking_ (Simon & Schuster, 1990)

 

 

[Pat]

We had chicken and potatoes last night, along with chips and 7 layer dip. The latter was a nod to Super Bowl food. I usually try to time dinner for halftime but missed the mark yesterday, so we ate during the 2nd quarter.

I drew lightly on a Food 52 recipe for the chicken and used a Smitten Kitchen recipe (Crispy Potatoes with Mushrooms) for the other. While the chickpeas and dates element of the chicken recipe looked appealing, I wasn't really up for the additional work. I'll circle back to the recipe at some point and make the whole deal. I coated the drumsticks in a dip I had bought that was tahini and Calabrian chile pepper, supplemented with some extra tahini, lemon juice, smoked paprika, and TJ's Spicy Honey Sauce. They were delicious.

I also added some smoked paprika to the potatoes, though I followed the recipe fairly closely otherwise. I used a mix of cremini and button mushrooms and had just enough still-fresh dill for that element. For the first time I can recall, sliced potatoes I hadn't par-boiled came out the way they were supposed to. I imagine it's because they were laid out on a sheet pan rather than layered in a casserole.

 

[genericeric]

Swordfish briefly marinated in lemon, evoo, s/p, seared with a pat of butter, a few capers and more lemon juice.  Asparagus and mashed squash.  I wish swordfish didn't have as much mercury, I could eat a swordfish BLT every week (I guess if I care about mercury I should check myself on the bacon...)

Super Bowl included this Bacon-Cheddar dip which was fine, a little too indulgent but when eaten with fresh vegetables was good enough.  My first attempt at making Buffalo Wings at home was somewhat successful.  I'm not sure I would call these "ultra crispy" but for a wing that wasn't fried, it was worth the effort.

[genericeric]

Following the Super Bowl gluttony, I lightened things up with Sweet and Sour Eggplant with Garlic Chips (gift link).  I did add some chopped red pepper to the mix about half way through the eggplant cook and served over basic jasmine rice.  Delicious and on the table in ~20 minutes.

[Pat]

We had turkey burgers last night, on whole wheat buns, with iceberg lettuce, tomato, banana peppers, and pepper jack cheese. There was also salad and leftover potatoes with mushrooms.

My secret ingredient in turkey meatballs and burgers is Cava harissa. Shhhh.

[Pat]

Dinner last night was Garlic Butter Creamed Spinach Salmon with coconut rice. Both dishes were pretty efficient to make, which was necessary because...

I also made this meyer lemon poppy cake from the SF Chronicle for dessert [gift link]. It's amazing how long it's been since I baked anything. I used to bake something at least biweekly. It came out pretty well, given how rusty my baking chops are. We also had some black cherry chocolate chip ice cream, which was a nice pairing.

[dcandohio]

Fresh market had nice looking tuna steaks on sale. I crusted one with black pepper and a Yuzu seasoning I bought at an Asian store. I seared it rare and sliced it, and served it with mashed potatoes and sautéed cabbage. Weird combination, maybe, but it was what I wanted!

[Pat]

46 minutes ago, dcandohio said:

Fresh market had nice looking tuna steaks on sale. I crusted one with black pepper and a Yuzu seasoning I bought at an Asian store. I seared it rare and sliced it, and served it with mashed potatoes and sautéed cabbage. Weird combination, maybe, but it was what I wanted!

I love seared tuna! That sounds great.

Last night was pasta again. I had an eggplant I couldn't decide what to do with. I landed on this recipe I'd saved a while ago, in part because I had all the ingredients except fresh basil (which, of course, I forgot to buy yesterday...). The eggplant wasn't exactly evenly diceable after being roasted, but this worked out pretty well. In lieu of fresh basil, I added some Penzey's pasta sprinkle into the puree before assembling everything. I baked it at 375ish instead of broiling rather than searching for a casserole dish that could go under the broiler.

We had this with sourdough bread and a salad of gem and iceberg lettuces, avocado, tomato, hard-boiled eggs, and bacon, with a bottled creamy Italian dressing.

[Pat]

Last night was hamburgers plus a big salad and leftover coconut rice with peas and carrots.

[Pat]

Last night we had hamburgers on whole wheat buns and Latin American green lentil salad, a recipe from Michael Natkin's Herbivoracious.

Tonight is leftover bbq chicken thighs, coconut rice, and boiled broccoli with nutritional yeast.

[Pat]

I baked cod last night (lemon, s + p, smoked paprika) and served it over leftover lentil salad and coconut rice, with broccoli on the side. Salad and sourdough bread.

[dcandohio]

Yesterday I made a batch of chicken Tinga following a combination of all the recipes that I found on the Internet. I poached the chicken first, then added the poaching liquid to a blender with sautéed onions and garlic and tomatoes that had been cooked down plus chilies in adobo, chipotle powder, cumin, smoked paprika. The sauce was blended and reduced a bit, and then I put the shredded chicken in.
 

I’m just experimenting with masa harina. I was trying to duplicate a small tostada appetizer served that one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. I just added water to the MASA, but next time I think I want to use chicken stock instead of water, and add in a little bit of fat. A friend told me to bake them in the oven, which got them crispy, but not brown.
 

Any advice on working with masa is appreciated!

[genericeric]

Broccoli and Lettuce Salad with Huck's Accidental Ranch, from Tenderheart by Hetty Lui McKinnon, lightly adapted.

Roast broccoli for 15 minutes, toss over baby romaine, add sliced green onion, pine nuts (I used sliced almonds), a squirt of lemon juice and some homemade ranch - 2 mayo, 1 buttermilk, garlic powder and green onion.  Hopefully Ms. McKinnon will forgive me for topping with some sliced grilled chicken.

[zgast]

Out of the blue I had a need for the mushroom fricassee from Grapeseed.  Seeing as how they’ve been closed for some time and I live 3,000 miles away, my only option was to replicate the recipe from Washingtonian. 
 

Oh man - this hit the spot. What a great winter dish. Not as good as Jeff could make it, but still oh so good. Thanks Jeff - if you see this know how much we appreciate you!

[Katya4me]

The other night, we made very tasty Chili Crunch Tofu Bowls. We had a 10 oz package of extra firm tofu, so scaled the rest of the recipe accordingly.  Came together very easily and the organization of the steps made it easy to work on one element while another was cooking.  My only complaint, and it's a small one, is that it uses a decent number of pots, pans and bowls in the preparation.  

[dcandohio]

After hearing my friends discuss their air fryers with nearly religious fervor, I acquired one yesterday. Holy moly, my first attempt at chicken wings made me very happy! I generally don’t like many devices, but I think this one will be a winner.

[Pat]

Air fryers are great for chicken. Congratulations on your acquisition🙂

We've been having leftovers interspersed with new meals. A few days ago I made a teriyaki pork tenderloin and served it over a prepared miso mushroom noodle bowl from Foxtrot (without their dressing), along with broccoli and pineapple chunks. Fairly quick meal (due to the, uh, "semi-homemade" part and advance marinating of the pork) and really delicious. I took a few photos but they don't really look as good as this was.

Last night I cooked up some sausages I'd bought at Stachowski's in Georgetown earlier in the week. They were Thai chicken, with green chilies, mint, and basil. They had started to thaw a little bit by the time I got them home and, since I was planning on making them soon, I put them in the meat drawer of the fridge instead of the freezer. Took them out yesterday only to notice "Keep frozen" on the package. Oops. Since they're uncooked (but vacuum-sealed), they were basically a slab of sausage instead of separate links. So I cooked them like loose sausage in a scorching cast iron pan while cooking up some white rice and roasting poblanos. I stuffed the peppers along with a mixture of the rice and sausage and topped each with a piece of sharp cheddar. Then I put them back in the oven until the cheese melted. Very good. We had them with a side salad.

[zgast]

1 hour ago, dcandohio said:

After hearing my friends discuss their air fryers with nearly religious fervor, I acquired one yesterday. Holy moly, my first attempt at chicken wings made me very happy! I generally don’t like many devices, but I think this one will be a winner.

We make wings far more often now that we have an air fryer.  I had to be dragged, kicking and screaming into the purchase, but am glad I was forced into it.  Also much better for chicken breasts than firing up the whole oven.

[Pat]

I hardly ever watch Food Network anymore,  but I still occasionally look through the recipes on the site. I made this Chicken Parmesan Casserole from there last night. It was quite successful. I used WF rotisserie chicken, though it would be cheaper to use a Costco one. It used to be I'd make recipes like this all the time, but it seems like I don't make anywhere near as many casseroles as I used to. We had this with salad and sourdough bread.

[Katya4me]

I saw this recipe for Celery Root Steak Diane on WashPo last week and it looked weird enough that I wanted to try it.  Got 4 slices out of my celery root, skipped the brandy and bumped the mushrooms up to 16 oz.  Really tasty and very easy to make. Didn't have anything else with it but I could see a green salad going well with it next time. Or continuing with the steak theme, perhaps some creamed spinach since I still have plenty of heavy cream to use up.

[Pat]

I had taken some D'Artagnan Green Circle chicken leg quarters out to thaw a few days ago and then realized I had to use them . So I made them in the air fryer last night, seasoned with some salt and pepper and dredged in a light coating of flour; 35 minutes at 380 and they were just right.

I served them with pan vegetables. This started with a mirepoix, and once those (that?) had sauteed, I added chopped garlic and diced jalapeno to the pan. Mushrooms went in next: soaked dried button mushrooms and some fresh Enoki, King Oyster, and Maitake. (The fresh ones were from a Costco gourmet pack. I have plenty left to use--soon, now that the package is open.) Last vegetable in was chopped frozen spinach. I boiled it for a couple minutes and squeezed out excess liquid so I didn't add too much extra water. Once that shrank down in the pan, I splashed in some white wine to cook off. Near the end of the cooking time, I stirred some heavy cream into the mixture and adjusted the seasoning, which was basically salt and pepper.

I made a big salad, enough to last for a few days: iceberg and frisee, cucumber, carrots, celery, red onion, olives, cornichons, and queso fresco. We also had cups of soup. My husband had NE clam chowder from WF prepared foods and I had the remnants of our old cod and lentil meals turned into a little fish soup. There was bread and butter as well (striata baguette from Radici).

[Katya4me]

Dinner last night was Vegan Beef Pepper Lunch. I've seen beef pepper lunch recipes a few times and while they look good, I didn't feel like allotting that much time and effort at lunchtime.  So, dinner instead. I think I could have cut the tofu into even smaller pieces than we did. I had a 16 oz block and cut it into 18 pieces and I could have halves those pieces.  Good flavor and it came together nicely.

[Pat]

I cut the remainder of the striata baguette into 4 slabs and made Italian bread pizza. I drizzled the slabs with some oil and lightly toasted them in the oven as it was heating to 400, while I blanched baby spinach and sauteed enoki and sliced King Trumpet mushrooms with some garlic.

Two of the slabs were topped with the last of the shredded rotisserie chicken breast, the greens, most of the mushrooms, and some of the garlic. Crumbled queso fresco, a couple spoonfuls of whole milk ricotta, and grated Parmesan went on top, along with a chiffonade of basil. The other two got coated with a bit of TJ's jarred pizza sauce, then sliced pepperoni and the remainder of the mushrooms and garlic. I drizzled a little more sauce over that. They were topped with shredded mozzarella and grated Parmesan, plus basil.

I managed to get a nice variety of ingredients on these without overloading the pizzas. Toasting the bread a little in advance helped prevent sogginess too.

We had this with an iceberg salad with cucumber, tomatoes, olives, carrots, and cornichons.

[Pat]

I picked up a smallish piece of brisket (just under 2 lbs.) at Safeway recently and decided to cook it in the InstantPot, using this recipe from The Kitchn*. I roasted some multicolored fingerling potatoes to go with it and reheated the leftover creamed spinach, mushrooms, etc., I'd made the other night for some vegetables. Really good meal, but even with the IP, we ate later than I wanted. I prepped tonight's dinner before starting the brisket and that was a planning error 😑.

 

*On a complete side note, I really do not like the current buzzfeed-y kind of website they have. I feel like the site is less useful than it used to be, but I can still occasionally find something there. It's probably all SEO driven and I'm the wrong market. Maybe it's just me?

[Pat]

Pre-prepping the main part of dinner worked out well, time-wise. We had cinnamon rosemary pork chops, along with asparagus with lemon butter, leftover roasted potatoes, and sourdough bread.

That pork chop recipe is excellent. I've found, after making it a bunch of times, that plain whole milk yogurt works better in the marinade than Greek. It needs that little bit of extra liquid.

[Katya4me]

On 3/7/2024 at 10:04 AM, Pat said:

I picked up a smallish piece of brisket (just under 2 lbs.) at Safeway recently and decided to cook it in the InstantPot, using this recipe from The Kitchn*. I roasted some multicolored fingerling potatoes to go with it and reheated the leftover creamed spinach, mushrooms, etc., I'd made the other night for some vegetables. Really good meal, but even with the IP, we ate later than I wanted. I prepped tonight's dinner before starting the brisket and that was a planning error 😑.

 

*On a complete side note, I really do not like the current buzzfeed-y kind of website they have. I feel like the site is less useful than it used to be, but I can still occasionally find something there. It's probably all SEO driven and I'm the wrong market. Maybe it's just me?

I did a brisket this week as well, 3 lbs flat top.  I rinsed it and then sprinkled Cajun seasoning on the fat before doing sous vide at 155*F for 26 hours. Seared on cast iron for dinner and served with mashed potatoes.  Really good.

To answer your question, I'm in complete agreement on The Kitchn.  Every once in a while I wander in there and wonder why I did that.  It doesn't work for me at all.

[Katya4me]

Last night was a rather random pizza but tasty. Homemade dough, habanero BBQ sauce, sauteed enoki mushrooms, diced tofu marinated in the BBQ sauce and frozen corn warmed with pesto. Topped with mozzarella and baked at 505*F for 13 minutes. Delicious 😋

[Katya4me]

Didn't feel like going out in the rain to go grocery shopping so poked around in the pantry and freezer to come up with dinner.  

From the pantry, I found a bag of star shaped fideo and a can of Caribbean seasoned black beans.  From the freezer, 1/2 lb of freezer burned ground chicken and 3 Italian sausage links. I settled on fideo seco for dinner. Had a can of diced tomatoes, so used those instead of fresh Roma tomatoes and put the onion into the blender for the sauce. I defrosted and cooked the meat separately, then added it at the end. Had some queso fresco in the fridge, so topped with that and served the beans on the side. I've got another bag of the fideo in the pantry still, so I'm keeping this recipe to make again.

[Pat]

Last night was an omelette filled with the last of the creamed spinach and mushrooms, baked potato, and toast.

Tonight is bucatini with hot Italian sausage, mushrooms, and Rao's caramelized onion marinara. We're also having a big salad and a baguette.

[Pat]

I originally had different plans for the ground turkey I had in the refrigerator, but I mixed up its use by date with the sausage (ugh, but that pasta with sausage was good!). I discovered* this mid-day yesterday and decided it must be cooked immediately. Didn't even wait until dinner time.

Once it was browned and broken into small bits, I added a can of tomato sauce, about another can of water, some minced dehydrated onion, chopped celery, and Cajun seasoning (some Penzey's, which was old, and some other, newer from WF). Carrots didn't occur to me or I could have had the trinity. I also added a can of Ro-Tel and a can of drained, rinsed small red beans. At some point I added some torn fresh basil as well. I simmered this for a while and then put it in the fridge until dinner time. It made a nice stewy soup (I guess Rachael Ray calls that a stoup.)

We had this with a NY style thin crust pizza from della barba. They've been running $2 off specials on Tuesdays. I've been ordering the plain cheese and then adding toppings at home before putting it in a warm oven to be ready for dinner. Usually I do just pepperoni, but yesterday I sauteed the last of the enoki mushrooms I had and topped the pizza with them, some pre-shredded mozzarella, and whole fresh basil leaves. (I can't recall what recipe I bought the mozzarella for, but I only needed 3/4 of the bag, and one of the problems with pre-shredded cheese is it goes bad fairly quickly. The last 1/4 of that bag seems to be lasting forever.)

Anyway, the turkey was salvaged and dinner saved.

*I try to keep a current list of fresh provisions I have on hand, so things don't go bad before I remember them. When I was putting something else into the meat drawer, I looked at the turkey date and went, "Huh? The 10th?" Then I checked my list and, indeed, had transposed the dates for the hot Italian sausage and the ground turkey in my mind. I need to remember to look at the list more frequently😞.

[Pat]

I had made some spicy baked sweet potato wedges for one of the meals I don't seem to have written about. We had them leftover last night, along with rotisserie chicken and smoked salmon dill crostini. The base of each crostini was a thin layer of whipped cream cheese. There was a sauce for the potatoes, a crema with lime juice, and I drizzled a little of that on top of each crostini before serving. We also had some marinated gigande beans alongside the crostini. This was a simple, mostly no-cook meal.

[dcandohio]

Purely gringo quesadillas with ground beef and cheddar cheese. I had less than a pound of ground beef that I needed to use and this was simple, quick, and quite fun.

[Katya4me]

Dinner tonight was chicken zucchini meatballs in a red curry sauce.  I got 1.5 instead of 1 lb of ground chicken so just scaled the recipe up accordingly and added some bread crumbs since I had some leftover.  I'm not a fan of frying meatballs so I did them in the oven, 20 minutes at 400*F. Got the rice started then started the sauce. I had a can of coconut milk and some leftover heavy cream and used that combination instead of 1.5 cans.  Came together well and super easy. 

The breadcrumbs were leftover from last night's dinner, which I think is my absolute favorite version of a fried tofu sandwich.  I did 12 slices from the tofu block instead of 18, but those were still very thin.  Really liked the taste of the breading and fried up very well.  I had a chipotle garlic spread that I used for my condiment, topped with some pickle slices and lettuce.  We had for 3 meals actually, and one time I did a tahini artichoke dip instead of the garlic spread and that worked well too. 

[genericeric]

Two dinner parties, two nights in a row.  Friday was a Pea Salad with Spinach Mint Pesto Pistachio and creme fraiche from Apricot Lane farm (Sancerre), Red Wine Braised Short Ribs with carrots and asparagus (Stone Tower Hogback Mountain from NoVA), and a Citrus-sented Barsac Sabayon over fresh berries (Pineau des Cherantes).  The first two I make quite often and are hits ever time.  The Sabayon was new - next time I'd cut the sugar, but the sweetness was offset well by the berries.  I inverted the ratio of berries to cream that is shown in the recipe picture linked.

Saturday started with cocktails and Foie Gras Macarons from the Eleven Madison Park cookbook.  Excellent flavors but the macarons became soggy within minutes of touching the foie mousse.  Winter Citrus Salad with Pistachio and Castelvetrano Olives (Erbaluce) sounded like such an odd combination was but knock-out good.  Braised Pork with Prunes and Citrus (git link) (Tenuta Terre Nere Etna Rosso - a fantastic pairing) was easily the best dish I've made in months.  Finished with chilled port and melon, which I commonly serve after a heavy meal and when I run out of capacity to cook and entertain.  A fair amount of trying new recipes went into the planning for this meal, but I was thrilled to get two new recipes to add to the permanent roster.

On the menu for tonight - take out!

[dcandohio]

I haven’t been doing very much cooking, but I had a cookout for a friend who was visiting. I bought bratwurst and hot Italian sausages from Aldi. Someone I trust told me that they were very good and I concur. We grilled the sausages and served them on buns, along with a pesto pasta salad made with mini farfalle, fresh, mozzarella, tomatoes, and cucumber. I also made a slaw with red wine vinegar, olive oil, and lots of salt and pepper and basil. Finished with chocolate chocolate chip cookies. 
 

I wasn’t certain that it would go over, but it was a huge hit!

[Pat]

I haven't been cooking much either. Last night I had a chicken recipe in mind. I knew my package was less than the amount but was going to scale down the recipe. When I opened the package, I found 3 skinless boneless breasts all of completely different sizes and thicknesses. That wasn't going to work for the recipe, so I sliced the chicken into strips of as close to the same size as I could and dredged in a mixture of seasoned flour and a little cornstarch. Then I cooked them in batches in the air fryer.

I simmered asparagus (which was to be part of the sheet pan recipe) until crisp-tender and put that on a sheet pan next to the cooked chicken strips. I seasoned the asparagus with salt and pepper and drizzled with a little evoo and balsamic vinegar. I topped the chicken with some pizza sauce that was in the fridge and then with some fresh basil leaves, shredded mozzarella and a few discs of fresh mozzarella. The pan went under the broiler while I cooked angel hair pasta I had hanging around in a tall jar, a mix of regular and whole wheat. For serving I tossed the pasta with some torn fresh basil, the very last of the sauce, and grated Parmesan. I also put some grated Parmesan over top of the chicken to serve.

Good meal but it took a while longer than I had allocated for the original recipe.

Saturday night was a salmon fillet I marinated in sesame soy dressing and baked. We had that with white rice and sauteed then braised curly kale.

 

[Katya4me]

I had some veggies in the fridge and glass noodles in the pantry so made a bastardized japchae last night.  I had no spinach, so skipped that and used fresh shiitake mushrooms instead of fresh.  For veggies, I included: 1 zucchini, matchstick carrots, 1 yellow onion, snow peas, 1 orange bell pepper, and 1 jalapeno.  I had a package of beef flavored seitan in the fridge, so I sauteed that with a bit of sweet soy sauce and then added it to the bowl.  I would have liked to have had greens in it but it helped clean out the fridge and I always like japchae. 

[Pat]

Last night was fish-centered. I made small pumpernickel canapes topped with cream cheese, smoked salmon, red onion and dill.  I forgot capers. We also had a baked halibut fillet with lemon and tarragon and a mix of buttered peas and carrots with dill.

The plates were very bright-looking.

[Katya4me]

I had some butternut squash and pomegranate molasses in the fridge so made this wheat berry and butternut squash salad for dinner. I didn't have pomegranate seeds so I chopped up some dried dates instead.  I'm a fan of all of the elements in this recipe and so happy I've got leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

[Katya4me]

Last night for us was fish, specifically salmon.  Hubby picked this spicy salmon bowls recipe and other than removing the skin, was super quick to make.  Since there weren't measurements for the spices, I just eyeballed and used Penzey's Bangkok seasoning instead of chili powder in the seasoning mix. We had leftover jasmine rice so I added some vinegar seasoning to it instead of making a batch of sushi rice and that worked.  I have a jar of red Caviart that I've had for a while and it's almost empty now. It works well for sushi dishes, but I just saw that they have a lot more options I need to try.

[Katya4me]

Went to an Easter celebration yesterday and planned to bring a side dish or two.  I had some leftover wheat berries from cooking a double batch and some canned chickpeas so that was my starting point.  I settled on this wheat berry and everything else recipe as it did not look boring at all and turned out really well.  While I was shopping for ingredients, I saw some tamarillos and remembered this recipe, so I picked up 3 of those (forgot I needed 4) and had everything else for that recipe.  I did realize after I got home that I was out of normal pesto, so I made a bit of a mishmash that worked for the dish. My BIL made delicious beef tenderloin and twice- baked potatoes, so I was glad I had the salads to balance them out.  Then we had cheesecake and tiramisu for dessert. 😋

[dcandohio]

I had some jarred pesto that I needed to use, so last night, I sautéed shrimp, garlic, and baby tomatoes with pesto. Easy and delicious. I also sautéed some yellow squash and zucchini with onion.

[Pat]

A while back I had bought a small boneless leg of lamb at TJ's that I intended for Easter. I was eyeing a recipe from a Greek cookbook* I've had for years and don't think I've ever cooked from. When I went to get started, I realized that the 2 hours I'd set aside were not going to be anywhere near enough time given how slowly the prep would go.

Instead, for Easter we had this chicken pasta salad, which was excellent and made a ton of food for leftovers.

A couple of days later, I set aside lots of time to make the lamb recipe (Roast Lamb from Rhodes), and...we still ate dinner late 🙃. The recipe struck me as a cross between dolma and kleftiko, as the lamb is first wrapped in lettuce leaves and then in parchment or foil parcels. Thin slices of tomato and onion go on top of the lamb before wrapping.

The recipe called for either romaine or red leaf lettuce. I had both and used most of two heads of lettuce. (Each bundle uses 4 or 5 leaves.) Having made dolma and stuffed cabbage in the past, I should have thought to cut the out the thickest part of the stems of the leaves. It was hard to roll the lettuce bundles with those intact. Otherwise this came out well, time issues notwithstanding. After an hour roasting, the foil is cut open and feta is crumbled over the lamb inside for the remaining oven time. We had these with asparagus and garlic naan.

There were quite a few leftover, so last night I reheated them in a Staub cocotte. I put a layer of drained and rinsed Great Northern beans on the bottom and nestled in the lamb bundles. I halved several cocktail tomatoes and scattered over the top.  Then I poured over some canned tomato juice and white wine over it all and heated until everything was nice and warm and the tomatoes were breaking down. This was a great use of the extras and I think we liked it even more than the original. We served this straight from the pot at the table, accompanied by more garlic naan and a salad. For the salad: The remaining romaine and red lettuces, cucumber, radishes, and tomatoes, with crumbled feta and marcona almonds to top. The dressing was the last of the ranch made for the chicken pasta salad. (I only used about 2/3 of the dressing on the pasta salad.)

 

 

 

*The cookbook is Regional Greek Cooking by Dean and Catherine Karayanis.

[Katya4me]

Playing a bit of catch-up here on this past week's cooking.

Tuesday: I had some enoki mushrooms so decided to make this wrap recipe. I had 150 grams of mushrooms so divided it into 9 sections and increased the sauce accordingly.  I had a package of fried tofu sheets, took out 9 sheets, and rehydrated them in the microwave with some water. I've still got 1/2 a package of the sheets so need to do something else with them. We had it over jasmine rice. Flavor was very good, just have to be aware that some of the mushrooms will want to get caught in your teeth.

Wednesday: We had Drunken Udon Noodles.  Right on the edge of too much heat but just delicious.  We doubled the recipe, bumped up the amount of baby corn and Chinese broccoli and tossed in 2 sheets of thinly cut tofu sheets. 

Thursday: Addictive sweet potato burritos, we've been making these for years. Great for an easy dinner, fantastic for freezing and having for a future lunch. 

Friday: Using the leftover rice from Tuesday, made Sambal fried rice with chicken.  Didn't have any shrimp paste, so decided to use broad bean sauce instead, not trying to replicate the flavor but thought that might taste good. We also had 1 green bell pepper left over, so included that.  This was a bit too spicy for me but tasted very good, just needed to top up my water glass a couple of times. 

Yesterday was leftovers of the burritos and fried rice.

[dcandohio]

My first visit to a small local grocery store, chain renowned for its meat and fish, netted a pack of individually sealed, frozen red trout fillets. I defrosted one last night and pan seared it in ghee and then finished it simply with lemon juice, capers, and parsley. Nice crispy skin! Served over rice cooked in chicken stock, with a tomato and avocado salad. The fish was very high-quality. A really easy and quick dinner.

[Katya4me]

I had 2 cactus paddles in the fridge so decided to make nopales with ground beef for dinner.  I've had piquin peppers lingering for a long time so was very happy that this recipe called for them.  It's a bit brothy but I really like the broth and it went well over rice. I might serve it with beans next time.

[Pat]

Last night was patty melts, french fries, and salad. I bought ground beef on sale that was 80/20. I usually go somewhat lower fat, so the patties were a bit greasy. I should stick to using that for cooking up ground beef for something where it gets well -drained and use the better stuff for burgers.

[genericeric]

Loosely inspired by a recipe from The Times, Sunday's appetizer was fresh burrata surrounded by a spring salad of edamame, fennel, celery and mint, lightly dressed.  Served with toasted italian bread, made a delicious and (somewhat) light bruschetta.  I would imaging you could do the same with ricotta instead of burrata as well.  Shaps Bouzeron Aligote.

Desert was the easy and always fabulous Cherry Clafoutis from Eric Ripert's Vegetable Simple.  Sparkling Lambrusco (forget the producer).  Oh and some mixed grilled meats and vegetables in the middle.

[Katya4me]

Dinner tonight was this awesome avocado, bacon, and chicken salad.  I added cucumber and carrots because I like those and despite putting it on the grocery list, I forgot to buy feta cheese. We have an assortment of cheeses in the drawer so went with a smoked Gouda and something else.  Everything worked really well and I probably could skip the chicken and still really enjoy it.  

[Pat]

Will have to try that ⬆️ salad. I've got some leftover rotisserie chicken in the freezer. It reminds me a bit of the chicken ranch pasta salad with avocado and bacon I made from her site recently, and rotisserie chicken worked great.

Speaking of her site, we had salmon with creamed spinach and mashed potatoes last night. I combined 2 recipes from Half-Baked Harvest, as she tends to reissue variations on the same essential recipe over time. I included both the cream cheese and pepper flakes from this one and the thyme, dill, green onions, salsa verde, and sun-dried tomatoes from this, so it was spicy. I used heavy cream, lemon juice and zest as well. The last bit of the cream went into the mashed potatoes as did some excess dill and green onion tops. It looked beautiful plated.