What's For Dinner? Part LIII

[Cherylptw]

Welcome to the new thread I took the liberty of starting; even though I didn't have a problem loading the previous one, it was a little long so I think we should start a new one at the 250 mark. So, do tell of all the deliciousness on your plate this evening...

[Cherylptw]

Because it seemed that the last thread was a bit long, I took the liberty of starting the new thread here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/740919

[Harters]

Upcoming.....a few olives to nibble on. Followed by:

Starter: some salad leaves, topped with smoked mackeral

Main course: roast chicken, roast butternut squash, steamed cabbage, gravy

Cheese: Red Leicester

Dessert: apple crumble, cream.

Drinks: whatever red wine herself is having. And an alcohol free version for me (I've got a Merlot which should work)

[vafarmwife]

Smothered pork chops with cream gravy, rice, roasted parsnips and sweet potatoes, and baked apples

[mariacarmen]

Dad wanted tuna patties - canned tuna mixed with minced onions, oregano, celery seed, s&p, bread crumbs, eggs, mayo. made into little patties, fried til golden. with a tomato onion sauce. favorite of the oldsters. Also leftover corn silk soup, which is what i'm now calling it. Rice on the side, salad. Me, going to late late late happy hour (10 p.m.) at a local newish restaurant (opened by a local CH!) for wood fired pizza, wine, relaxation. Cheers, Rabaja, and to everyone else!

[Cherylptw]

Tell me more of this corn silk soup of which you speak...(lol)

[mariacarmen]

wait, you're not the one who posted it originally, are you? i can't remember who did - someone who had it at a restaurant with their son, and wrested the recipe from the waiter....

so what i do: scrape corn off of 4 or 5 fresh cobs (i just got some white corn from the supermarket, and they were still sweet and not starchy). scrape off as much of the corn milk with the kernels, and set aside. put THE SCRAPED COBS in a big pot with 4-5 cups of chicken broth. (i used Swenson's, didn't have any homemade.) let that simmer while you do the rest. Saute a big sweet diced onion until soft and just barely starting to brown in a mixture of extra virgin olive oil and butter. add 3-4 slices of bacon (this is my addition) chopped into small pieces and saute. Bacon doesn't have to get crispy, just cooked. Add a bit more butter, maybe a tablespoon. Add corn kernels and corn milk. Saute for maybe another 10 minutes on low, so everything is caramelized together. Remove corn cobs from broth, and pour corn mixture into broth. Check to see if needs salt. Wait til the mixture cools and, in batches, puree in blender. Then, in batches, strain pureed soup thru a fine sieve. squeeze all the juices with a spatula pressed into the sieve until you're left with only pulp. There won't be any visible bacon in the soup, as it all gets left behind with the pulpy corn kernel skins in the sieve, but you'll have that smokey bacon essence. What you're left with is a pale yellow, silky, smooth, creamy, sweet, smokey goodness! With NO cream or milk!

[Cherylptw]

No, I wasn't the one who posted originally but thanks for posting it; I'll have to try it.

[mebby]

I think it was Roxlet who posted originally -- I copied it over also, but haven't tried yet. Sounds delish!

[rabaja]

Headed back to the city for a dinner out with work friends, so no cooking for me tonight.
I will be ordering a Hendrick's martini after reading through this thread though, and I will relish every sip!
Happy Friday everyone!

[Phurstluv]

Inspired by a fellow east coaster and cook extraordinaire, our own Cherylptw, I went out to my favorite fish counter and bought a pound of manila clams for tonight.

BLT pasta with garlic bread crumbs.

Two versions - bacon, spinach and cherry tomatoes for the kids; bacon, onions, chiles, arugula, cherry tomatoes & clams for us (me). Both dusted with garlic bread crumbs and fresh parm. Over either angel hair or spaghetti. Lots of Frascati, my favorite Italian table white.

Also contemplating putting some extra large apples in the oven to slow bake while we do errands after school. Then the house would smell good when we got home, enough to rally me to make that pasta!!

[mariacarmen]

oh man, that adult version sounds fabulous! enjoy your frascati friday!

[krisrishere]

Mm, sounds delicious!

[Cherylptw]

I want to try your version with those clams, sounds so good I'm going to have to scout out clams next week...I hope you enjoyed every mouthful!!

[Phurstluv]

Yes, thanks for the inspiration, Cheryl, the clams were delicious and the pasta was a big hit. definitely going to make that one again!

[Cherylptw]

You're making me really want some now (lol); I'm buying clams this week coming up (if I can still find them!)

[JungMann]

If I can score some free salmon heads at the fishmonger I am making a spicy tamarind broth with vegetables and salmon. The cheeks have the most wonderfully tender and rich meat and pair spectacularly in the thin and sour broth. The foreheads are also good eats.

In the event that someone beat me to the heads, I'm torn between a saute of squids and salted duck egg or an easy tom yum. I'm leaning towards the latter.

[krisrishere]

How do you make your tom yum? I love it so much, but I've never made it at home.

[JungMann]

I cheat and use a prepared spice paste. All I need to do is add it to hot water, add my protein (usually shrimp, but sometimes whitefish), add my vegetables (straw mushrooms, baby corn and bamboo shoots) and season with fish sauce, lime and raw chilies. The garnish is chopped cilantro.

[krisrishere]

Easy! I'll have to look for the paste in my local International Market. Does it specifically say for tom yum?

[JungMann]

Yes. I buy Mae Ploy brand. Knorr makes tom yum bouillon that I have in the cupboard, though I have not yet tried it.

[Cherylptw]

Butternut squash soup to start; wilted spinach salad with warm bacon vinaigrette & topped with a fried egg and some toasted crostinis is my intention for today.

[Harters]

Easy peasy one pot meal tonight.

Some spuds get cut into wedges. They go in a roasting tin along with a wedged fennel bulb, some chopped red pepper, thyme, garlic, tomato puree and stock. Gets covered with foil and bakes in the oven for 30 minutes. Foil comes off. Pork chops go in. Heat gets turned up. Tin goes back in without foil for maybe 15 minutes or so. Simples!

There's some Red Leicester and apples for "afters".

[onceadaylily]

I love the sound of this dish. My interest in pork lately is seemingly boundless, and this looks to be an interesting recipe. Are the pork chops layered on top of the rest of the contents of the dish, or do you scoot things over to give them contact with the pan bottom? And how much stock and puree do you add in?

[Harters]

Pork chops just sat on top (meant the fat nicely ran through the veg and then mingled with the stock).

Tablespoon of puree; 250ml stock.

Was OK and well worth a try. Of course, the downside was there was no crispy skin with this way of cooking.

[onceadaylily]

Thanks, Harters. I'll give it a shot sometime. Potato wedges flavored with pork fat, mmm.

[Harters]

I think chucking some white wine into the stock would be an improvement. But then, even though I don't drink these days, I still think there are few dishes not improved by the addition on booze. You should taste my gin scented cabbage!

[onceadaylily]

Oh, I agree. I even use my Peychaud bitters in cooking (really good with roasted root vegetables). I think gin is the *only* liquor I've never tried in a cooked dish.

And I could taste that cabbage if you parted with the recipe. I actually have both gin and cabbage on hand, and wanted to use the cabbage as a side to a braised chicken dish this week. I cook cabbage about once a week (easy, cheap, and healthy if you can lay off the butter).

[Harters]

I was stirfrying some very thinly sliced cabbage (that I'd carefully cut away from the "ribs") with crushed juniper berries and garlic. It needed a touch of liquid to steam as well as fry and it just seemed to make sense to chuck in a good splash of gin to pick up on the juniper notes. Don't overdo it or you'll kill the flavour of the cabbage.

[mariacarmen]

very interesting! do you crush the juniper berries to the point they're dissolved, or are they still hard - and if so, do you then strain them out? definitely going to try this prep.

[krisrishere]

Husband is working tonight so I'm going to eat something that he doesn't care for too much. :)

I found these HUGE, tight, artichokes at the grocery store and I bought 2. The first artichoke will be my normal prepartion - steamed in acidulated water and served with olive oil and red wine vinegar for dipping the leaves. The second one I'll stuff with some bread crumbs, olive oil, parsley, garlic and pecornio and bake in the oven.

I'm counting down the hours until dinner!

[mamachef]

krisishere, you are so lucky. When I make arties, I have to share them, which sucks. how long do you bake the stuffed one for, do you cover them, is there any liquid necessary in the pan?

[krisrishere]

I put them in a a small casserole dish, pour in some boiling water (maybe an inch?) and cover them with foil. After about 45 minutes or so I'll uncover it to get brown and crusty.

[DoobieWah]

Green salad with homemade sun dried tomato vinaigrette.

French fries and salmon patties in duck fat.

Homemade tartar sauce.

Delish.

[buttertart]

Last night was stuck on the phone with a computer tech during the time I'd normally cook, so dredged up the chicken keema from a while back (frozen), lemon rice from an Indian restaurant (ditto), miked them, served with cucumbers and yogurt when I finally got off the phone. Leafing through "My French Table" while on the phone (such a beautiful and exciting book) and the Tanqueray and tonic/rickeys mine was plying me (allegedly to take my mind off the computer travails) with made for a clean plate in a big hurry. (Tanqueray the once and current favorite after a Plymouth interlude. The T is more "ginny".)
Tonight's the traditional "date night" - loin lamb chops, rare; mashed spuds; iceberg lettuce wedges with blue cheese. Drinks. Chilean red. Chocolate cake maybe later.

[mariacarmen]

I so agree on the Tanq - more junipery to me than all others.

oh your date night dinner sounds delish! i need to get some iceberg/blue cheese action going this weekend.....

[buttertart]

Remembered we had some of the chestnut soup from last weekend - will throw that in too.

[roxlet]

Have you tried Q Tonic? The DH will no longer drink a G&T (Tanqueray or Bombay here) without Q Tonic. Have to agree -- everything else tastes like syrup now...

[buttertart]

Nope, must confess I drink diet Schweppes, 1 part gin:1 part diet tonic:2 parts seltzer. I'll try it, though!

[nomadchowwoman]

Fever Tree is really excellent, too. I also just finished a Plymouth Interlude too, BT; now I'm back to Hendrick's, which I think is my favorite.

[ChristinaMason]

Have you tried Junipero? It lives up to its name. http://www.anchorbrewing.com/about_us...

[mariacarmen]

no, interesting! thanks!

[mariacarmen]

A baker I am not. those llauchas kicked my butt, and were not a success. Dough was very wet, so i added more flour, and then probably overworked it. I also haven't mastered the little braiding technique on the edges, so both batches i made leaked the melted cheese out of the seams onto the cookie sheet. The dough should have been a tad sweeter, in my opinion, and the filling needed something more - cayenne probably, but couldn't because of the oldsters - or maybe paprika. I have a batch of dough balls still to be flattened and filled, but i was done for the day. Three fricken hours! I froze the balls of dough which i didn't get to, and have a bowl of gloopy cheese filling waiting in the fridge for me when i get back them. the dough balls are well wrapped in parchment and foil in the freezer, and i hope they're ok. but if they're not, the hell with them, i say.

didn't get to enchiladas, too tuckered out. made a delicious creamy corn soup, tho, the recipe posted on here before that someone (sorry, can't remember who!) posted from a restaurant, with no cream, but the addition of bacon, which added a wonderful smokiness. BF had a tooth pulled today, so he loved the soup. Also made him a plate of mashed potatoes with a fried egg (yolk runny) on top. good thing i have practice with the parents! I am beat, and resting with a refreshing glass of argentinian (close to CHI! CHI! LE! LE!) malbec rose.

[buttertart]

Wow, I should think you're beat, that's a whole heckuva lot of cookin'.

[mamachef]

Posting in advance for Friday the 15th....tomorrow night is AGO Birfday nite!! We have 3 October Birfdays for the Boys, and each gets to choose something, so they put their heads together and choose a menu. Tomorrow night's offering is (Suprise) Grilled Steak (guess that one's not the vegan), Stuffed Baked potatoes w/ cheese, sour cream and onion, (guess he's not the vegan either) green salad (my choice, because something green must be available, by my own way of thinking), and Miso Soup with tofu, green onion and nappa cabbage. (Methinks we found him.) Do-it yourowndamnself Rootbeer floats on hand, 'cause they're a sober frat., and of course Birfday cake, which this month is a chocolate ice-cream-cake with a layer of choco. chip and a layer of chunky strawberry ice cream. At home, I think I'll put together the ingredients for a Cobb Salad with toasted nuts early on and construct that when I get home. Mr. will be in charge of making me a very large Bombay Martini and tossing the salad. Sorry for posting so early, but that is just how I gotta roll sometimes. (It's gonna be a busy day.)

[boyzoma]

mamachef - posting early is perfectly fine, as is posting the day after dinner! I have to admire your stamina at working with that menu. I certainly hope they appreciate your efforts. I would probably just do a salad as well at home. Kudos to you!

[mamachef]

Boyzoma, thanks!! It's really easy because of the way I split the work; the potatoes I pre-baked and stuffed today, the steak is marinating, salad is a snooze. Remember, last night's dinner was the tremendous Hot Dog Bar, which literally took me an hour and a half to put together; so it all evens out. (I use a lot of large slow-cookers, so the chili etc. were a snap.) It's totally fun: when I'm not hands-on cooking, I'm listening to music and hanging out and talking to freakin' adorable smart young college boys. Life could be a whole lot worse!

[mariacarmen]

enjoy that 'tini, you'll have earned it!

[boyzoma]

+1 on the 'tini! Good call MC! Maybe even 2!

[LindaWhit]

You are VERY good too these frat boys, mamachef. :-) I love the "Do-it yourowndamnself Rootbeer floats" :-)

[buttertart]

I'm still back boggled at "sober frat" - isn't that an oxymoron? (UCB 1983, go Bears!)

[mamachef]

I know, right, Butter? When I first got offered the job, I had some tredpidation, as did the Mr., about me going into a typical frat with thirty typically drunken frat boys. Then the proctor told me they were a Christian frat. with a no-drinking agreement, and I checked it out. They are the coolest group of young people I've ever seen, next to Chowhounds and my own three. : )

[buttertart]

Very nice.

[nomadchowwoman]

A sober frat! I had no idea such a thing existed. (No wonder you have to cook such good food for them; they can actually taste it.)

[Phurstluv]

I'm getting my ahi tuna tartar fix & some sake with a friend before a meeting while the boys and DH are getting pork ribs, leftover fried rice and baked ziti. And probably some frozen pizza, since he's watching them.......

[onceadaylily]

The boyfriend canceled his trip, so I've had his company for the past two days. Lunch yesterday was just a couple of slices of pizza (In case Eight Inch Pestle is nearby, that would be Gigio's, and it was *delicious*), eaten in the car as we made our way over to Spice House. I picked up a nice ground sumac, the interesting-looking Rocky Mountain blend (dried and ground green peppers, shallots, and parmesan), a refill of my Fancy Onion Salt, and a bottle of the dried, ground cheddar (for popcorn). We ordered ribs for dinner (Hecky's, son, St, Louis style, with a side of greens) to eat while we cleared up some space on the DVR.

And tonight (back by popular demand!), eggs. I had taken out the chorizo (Mexican, I can't ever find cured Spanish around here) to thaw a day or two ago, and the boyfriend asked if me to make a batch of chorizo and eggs. Today at the market, I picked up some onions, peppers, flour tortillas, and salsa. We still have a bit of the polenta left, so I guess we're having sausage and sausage.

I gave in to his request because, tomorrow, we're having chicken livers.

[LindaWhit]

I'm doing eggs tonight as well - cream cheese-scrambled eggs and a toasted English muffin. (But I'll be damned if I'm having chicken livers tomorrow! LOL)

Just got home and don't feel like cooking anything else - I think I'm fighting something, as I have a slight sore throat. So easy food for tonight, with a chaser of Nyquil for a late-night dessert and hopefully I'm doing better tomorrow.

[buttertart]

Hope so, take care of yourself, dearie!

[boyzoma]

Oh, boy. So sorry to hear that. Maybe a good hot toddy instead of the Nyquil would be a good idea. Go to bed and sweat it out. You could be on the road to recovery tomorrow (at least that is what my grandpa said so many, many years ago).

[LindaWhit]

Ooh, a hot toddy does sound good, but I'm just going to watch a bit of TV and then into bed. The middle-of-the-night-sweats will arrive soon enough, I'm sure. ;-)

[JungMann]

I have the exact same feeling, LW. Soup was all I could think of for dinner to try and chase the germs out of my head. So I heated up a can of low sodium Progresso Tuscan chicken that was lurking in the back of the cupboards. I tasted it and wasn't too thrilled, so I wilted kale in it and added my leftover sauteed chorizo and noodles with a couple teaspoons of sambal to try and clear my congestion. Much better! I think I will take boyzoma's advice and follow up the Throat Coat I'm drinking with a ginger and bourbon toddy.

[boyzoma]

Oh, JM, I'm so sorry to hear you have the "crud" too. I will think powerful thoughts for you and LW tonight to get better. Hope you both can have a peaceful night/

[mamachef]

"The Season" has come on hard and fast this year. I wanted to recommend low-sodium chicken broth with a big tablespoonful of lime pickle (hot) and some rice and maybe an egg stirred in for ballast, if you can manage that. feel better very soon! hydrate!!

[JungMann]

You put Indian pickles in chicken broth? I am definitely trying that even if I'm not sick!

[mamachef]

Feel better LW: see advice to JungMann!! Take good care of you!!

[LindaWhit]

I'm feeling fair this morning. I slept like a log last night; I can't recall waking up at all, even with all of the rain we got overnight. I have Dayquil and Oscillococcinum for today; hopefully it'll ward it off enough so I can go to The Speaking Clock Revue concert tomorrow night at the Wang Center (Leon Russell, Elton John, Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp, Gregg Allman, and others....)

Tonight's dinner will be pork tenderloin something-or-other. I took it out of the freezer on Wednesday, intending to make it last night, so it must be cooked tonight. I have pom arils and some pom molasses. Maybe something with that. We'll see when I get home (and how I feel).

[buttertart]

You can rally for that concert, I'm sure. Sounds terrific. Take it easy today. Lots of liquids, FIL (was an MD) always said hot/cold/hot/cold was best to break things up.

[LindaWhit]

I'm not yet at the "breaking up" stage - hopefully it won't get to that point. But I'll remember the hot/cold/hot/cold. Tea and lots of water. :-)

[mariacarmen]

Wow, what a line-up! I certainly hope you feel well enough to enjoy. Pump the Dayquil!

[mamachef]

Daylily, I chopped a batch the other day and just ate chicken livers on rye with mustard. Yum. Just a light pre-dinner snack.

[onceadaylily]

You chopped them? The recipes I've looked at advise trimming, coating, and frying, so I was thinking I would do that, and then maybe chop them up before I put them back into the gravy. But if they can be cooked as well by chopping first, then I like the idea of having the flour coat every bit of them. And any advice you, or anyone, has in regards to trimming these little guys is also welcome. I'm just assuming I get rid of the squidgy bits.

Linda: I hope you feel better soon. The barrage of viruses seemed to storm the gates very early this year. And I plan on frying some bacon in my pan before I introduce it to the chicken livers. Bacon, Linda. *Bacon*. I'm hedging my bets.

I've really got to start jogging again.

[mamachef]

Oh, sorry - I wasn't clear. I made Kosher-style chopped chicken livers, which is eaten basically as a pate, on rye bread or matzoh!! I do make the french-fried livers, though: I really love them cooked medium in a nice crunchy crust with dippin' gravy. Saveur had an awesome recipe if you'd like it. As far as trimming: use whole livers with intact lobes; discard any white, green or spongy parts. in fact, trim anything that doesn't look like a perfect beautiful chicken liver. You might want to cut them in half, but if you're frying them I wouldn't go smaller than that.

[LindaWhit]

Bacon = YES.

Chicken Livers = No freakin' way. ;-)

[nomadchowwoman]

You're sounding a bit perkier already, LW ; )

[LindaWhit]

Bacon does that to you. ;-)

[mariacarmen]

Yay for eggs, OADL, and yay for chicken livers!! mine would never touch them. I remember on our first anniversary, i made seared foie gras served with champagne, and other foofy things, which was such a mistake, because he doesn't like a) liver; b) champagne; c) foofy things. he ate it gamely but he cannot ever tell a lie, to save his life, and tho he didn't say he hated it, said it wasn't his favorite, or some other such thing. good thing i was too head-over-heels by that point to care.

[L987]

today i made cabbage pudding, it does taste better then it sounds.. Its cabbage fried in a little bit of butter, season with salt and brown sugar. then u layer the cabbage with kinda like meatloaf mix (but other spices no tomato) and then an other layer of cabbage. and then cook in the oven. Its a great way to use up all the cabbage u dont know what to do with.

[biondanonima]

I made grilled flap steaks with a little "compote" of roasted fennel, zucchini, bacon, sherry vinegar, thyme and rosemary last night for dinner, so I'll be having the leftovers tonight. It was pretty good for a quick, throw-together, low-carb meal.

[mariacarmen]

compote sounds seriously tasty.

[weezycom]

I'm beat, work has been hell today, the pantry has stuff, but a lot of prep to make it into food. I think it's going to be take-out tonight -- maybe even drive-thru.

[ChristinaMason]

Greek lentil soup (nice and lemony) with crispy pita bread. Then off to work.

[nomadchowwoman]

I stayed up most of Tuesday night watching and then couldn't turn it off yesterday. Even my husband, who usually disapproves of the usual 24-hour news fare, was transfixed.

Agree, chilean wine is in order. I heard one reporter say they all had special requests for the first meal once they were free. Wouldn't you love to see that list?

[Harters]

Betcha it's something simple and homely.

[buttertart]

God yes. I loved the guy asking his wife how the dog was too.

[Cherylptw]

Now, that would have been me since mine is like my child...this morning, I made a mushroom soup at my son's place & brought myself home a container of it for dinner; made it with beef stock, onions, garlic, mushrooms, edamame, sliced waterchestnuts, chili & garlic paste & coconut milk. I added diced tofu to his (none for me, thanks) Turned out really good. With that will be some leftover roasted chicken in a sandwich. It poured here today, perfect day for soup & sandwich.

[nomadchowwoman]

"his"--your son's or the dog's?
Either way, that Asian-inflected mushroom soup sounds great.

[Cherylptw]

tofu was for my son, I don't touch the stuff...can't get past the texture, although, I'm sure the dog would have eaten it also...

[boyzoma]

I'm sorry - but you would feed tofu to your baby dog? (aren't they all baby's no matter what the age?) I can't touch the stuff.

[Cherylptw]

Let me put it this way; she would probably eat it if I gave it to her as there is not too much she won't eat BUT I wouldn't go out & buy it for her like I do everything else I give her. I was given this pack of tofu so because my son likes it, I put part of it in his soup, the other part, I left in a container in his fridge.

[boyzoma]

OK - I hear you. My dog would probably eat it because he's like Mikey - he'll eat anything, but I would not buy it for him either. I think we are on the same page with tofu. ;-)

[mariacarmen]

Yep, a totally fulfilling news item to watch, for a change. i also was transfixed, almost to tears watching those guys come up. can you imagine what they felt all that time, probably after having eseeing other reports of miners in their same situation - like the Chinese miners not too long ago? Thinking they were probably doomed too? So great.

There's a lot of seafood in Chilean cusine, from what I understand, not surprisingly. My BF (drat him) doesn't like seafood, and neither do my oldsters, or I'd be temped to whip something up too. Although this website doesn't seem to feature fish as much as meat: http://www.southamerica.cl/Chile/Food...
Hah! my dumb Llauchas, which are basically cheese empanadas, would fit the bill, if they'd been a success!

[mariacarmen]

that is the sweetest!! (about asking about the dog.)

[buttertart]

Any Chileans on this board? What should we make to celebrate that incredible, amazing, wonderful, brilliant rescue of those poor guys from the mine disaster?

[LindaWhit]

Isn't it just wonderful that they were all safe? Seriously a miracle that the note stayed on the first drill that made it down to their location when they pulled it back up to the surface!

I think you could go with most Spanish dishes - empanadas, carbonada, seafood croquettes. And don't forget a good Chilean wine to wash it down! :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_...

[buttertart]

I didn't hear about the note, the whole thing was just mindblowing - my favorite news story ever. Saw the capsule get down for the first time, the first guy out, and the last guy out. Bravo!
There's usually a Chilean wine kicking around somewhere...hmm...

[LindaWhit]

The note staying on the drillbit that came into their space is how the rescuers knew they were there. And like you - saw the capsule go down with the first rescuer, the first guy up and the last guy. Bawling from happiness the entire time. :-)

[buttertart]

Me too! Got the moon landing beat all hollow.

[mariacarmen]

Made a stew with herbes de provence and sherry/beef broth braised beef chunks yesterday for the oldsters, will get a taste of the finished product today. mom has remembered that she used to like green enchiladas with lots of jack cheese and sour cream, so i'll make those up for her. made them once before with fresh tomatillos, but i have a feeling canned is the way to for her. also, if there's time, i may try my hand at .... TUM TUM TUMMMMMMMMM..... BAKING! she is also remembering a bolivian specialty - llauchas. http://www.facebook.com/pages/LLAUCHA...
the link is killing me! why does a baked cheesy good have a facebook page???? hilarious. basically they're a cheese empanada of sorts. we'll see if i get around to them today...better get my butt over there.

[nomadchowwoman]

Come on, MC, even baked cheesy good need "friends"!

I also love green enchiladas w/ (lots of) cheese and sour cream, one of a long list of guilty pleasures.

[mariacarmen]

Really? isn't being cheesy goodness a draw in and of itself? i'm sure if I was oozing cheese i'd be the belle of the ball

and yes, i'm now dying to make those cheesy gooey sour cream-laden enchiladas "for my mom"!

[boyzoma]

DH was still sore this morning so I am honoring his request again tonight. He asked for - drum roll please - Tuna and Noodle Casserole with steamed peas. I can do that, and I have to admit, we have not had that in ages. But if it makes him feel better, then that is what will be on the table. Sure hope he is better by tomorrow. :-)

[buttertart]

You might have to take him out back and shoot him.. (joke)

[boyzoma]

Maybe - let's wait and see after this weekend when he is taking me out for dinner! (Just a joke as well)

[buttertart]

;-)

[buttertart]

Chinese leftover festival last night at my husband's behest - some Sichuan eggplant (takeout) that was too sweet rinsed of its sauce and heated with chili bean paste and chili garlic sauce, some black vinegar and toasted Sichuan pepper at the end; leftover Fuchsia D dry-fried green beans with more zhai cai added and toasted Sichuan pepper on top; leftover Fuchsia D cubed chicken dish that had been carefully husbanded (by mine) and frozen; the sempiternal cucumbers in garlic etc, and heated-up Chinese restaurant rice. Not bad, actually!

[nomadchowwoman]

Not bad indeed!

[mamachef]

Well there are a few different plates going on this evening at a couple different places. In Fratland, I'm doing a hot dog bar in honor of the Giants: Miller's all-beef, Polska, Tofu and Turkey dogs; Chili (one meat, one vegan), kraut, slaw, onions, sport peppers, relish, cheese; they can basically roll their own. Garlic fries (oven-style), and barbeque beans. This one is soooo easy on the cook, and the boys LOOOOVE it. At home I have chicken breasts that need to be used, so I'll pound them out and dredge them and saute them and serve on toasted buns with homemade mayo, bacon, shredded lettuce and tomato. Onion for Mr., none for me. Garlic fries at home too, and fruit salad. Have a good day, y'all: try to stay cool.

[mebby]

There are vegan frat boys?! Apparently things have changed since I was at Cal. Sounds like a perfect baseball-playoff feast -- no wonder they love you so!

[mamachef]

Oh, these days I have to cook for every possible variable. I think they're just so happy not to be getting nightly Red Baron pizza that they'd like anything!! Oh, and when their sister sorors come in? Special request night! No garlic or onions or beans please!!

[mariacarmen]

that is hilarious!

[melpy]

Hoisin Pork and Snow Pea Stir-Fry from Cooking Light

[Harters]

A bit of poor planning saw us go out for Italian last night * and have a pasta dish on the menu for tonight. Still I guess Italians eat Italian almost every night.

Some courgettes get chopped into small pieces and are fried with garlic. Pasta gets almost cooked and drained. Courgettes go in, along with some crayfish tails from the supermarket. Everything gets tossed together to warm through, then some dill, basil, chilli, salt & pepper go in. Simples!

( * and very nice it was too - I had a wild boar ragu with tagliatelle)

[buttertart]

That sounds very nice, the basil would be good with both the crayfish and the zucchini.
There's a nice Jacques Pépin recipe for sea scallops cut amost in half horizontally, stuffed with a chopped mix of basil, pine nuts, garlic, and olive oil (coarser than a pesto) and then cooked. Must make again one of these days.
Wild boar...yum...one of the better things I ever ate was a ragout of wild boar (in Lyon, at a perfectly ordinary roadside restaurant).

[nomadchowwoman]

Wild boar ragu--wonderful. We had the very dish you describe for lunch in a Chicago restaurant recently; it was so delicious that, after acsertaining that it was also on the dinner menu, DH insisted we go back the next night so he could get a "real" portion.

Crawfish and "courgettes" (love that appellation) are plentiful here, but I've never seen them combined. Maybe I'll start the trend.

[buttertart]

What restaurant in Chicago?

[nomadchowwoman]

Cafe Spiaggia.

[buttertart]

We had a fantastic diner there a few years back.. Need a Chicago excursion.

[Cherylptw]

Tonight I made shrimp jambalaya served with saltines & a side salad of lettuce, tomato, cukes & shredded cheddar...buttermilk ranch to dress.

[JungMann]

Sounds like a great dinner, but I'm having a little difficulty imagining the jambalaya. Do you serve it soupier and crush the saltines on top?

[Cherylptw]

More like a thick stew in a bowl...served with the saltines on the side like for chili but now that you mention it, crushed on top would have been great....it turned out so delish and I've got leftovers for sometime this weekend.

[JungMann]

How do you eat chili with saltines? With my parents coming from the tropics, soup wasn't an altogether common meal for us so sometimes the simple things get past me. I vaguely remember that soup came with crackers to crumble on top when we went out to eat, but I haven't seen soup served this way in such a long time that I don't know if crushing crackers on your soup is common.

[Cherylptw]

Growing up, my mom always served soup or chili with saltines on the side; we'd just dip the crackers into the said dish & used it to scoop up bits of the food, of course, the dish had to be on the thick side. Sometimes, we kids would crumble the saltines in chicken noodle soup; it just had to be eaten that way. It's common where I come from, but you're right, saltines or oyster crackers used to be used to top your soup in restaurants but not so much anymore, because, they're eliminating those kinds of things these days. And not only that, I think those of us from "back in the day" are inclined to eat that way, not so much the "youngsters" (80's forward)

When I lived in New Mexico, the first time I was served enchiladas in someone's home, it was served with saltines on the plate as well. I thought it was strange, but it actually goes together, so most of the time, I serve it like that as well.

[boyzoma]

OK, I'll chime in on this one, only because my DH is part of this "travesty". DH thinks saltines or "crackers" belong in almost any soup (I am discounting stews or chili in his case). But give him a fantastic tomato or clam chowder soup and he is "crackers" all the way. Drives me nuts! Oyster crackers if they are available. I just don't see the appeal. And I tell him how it offends me when he does it. Makes no difference. I just have to abide by his choices and live with it.

[Cherylptw]

I'm curious as to why it offends you? Everyone has their own way of eating things, there is no standard. But I have to say that one thing that got on my nerves about my ex-husband was that he always salted his food before he tasted it. didn't matter if he was at home or a restaurant, he just grabbed the salt shaker & went at it, leaving a dusting of salt over his plate...and it's a wonder he doesn't have high blood pressure!

[boyzoma]

Well, it is kinda like the salt thing. He doesn't even taste it before he is already adding crackers. Ok maybe it is not "offensive" - probably used the wrong word, but I would like a little credit on it's originality first before he does that. Just sayin'.

[Cherylptw]

Now, that I understand..I used to ask him to try the food first but for him it was automatic.

[ChristinaMason]

I'm making a fennel-sausage ragu, which I'll serve over refrigerator-section linguine. The recipe comes from my friend Julius, who is a fab. cook: http://culinspiration.wordpress.com/2...

I may have a glass or two of the white wine (a viognier-chenin blanc blend) while it simmers.

Meanwhile, DH is napping. Ain't this the life?

[mariacarmen]

That recipe sounds awesome.

[ChristinaMason]

So yummy. I added garlic and (a little too much) tomato paste.

[rabaja]

I am putting off making toasted almond ice cream for 70, so that will probably get in the way of my dinner prrep/plans.
A large salad sounds good to me right now, still pretty warm up here today and I have a lot of random veg laying around. Of cours, what's salad without a couple of bockwursts on the side? Sauteed till they split, of course, with plenty of Boccalone mustard.

[boyzoma]

Probably just some soup out of the freezer tonight, which is a bummer, since DH will be coming home straight from the dentist and still be all numb (he wasn't thinking the day he maid the appointment) - and I don't feel like cooking. And to add to that, it's my Birthday today and we will have to wait till the weekend to go out. Oh well. There will be better days. ~sigh~

[buttertart]

Bummer! The same thing happened to us on my husband's birthday just before we got married - I was too out of it (dental surgery) to cook for him and my mom and dad were going out of town so my mom couldn't either. She left a chili mac casserole for us (thinking of my tooth) and my husband hates casseroles...not the happiest of birthdays for him. We made it up over the years since then. Happy birthday anyway - extend the celebration through the weekend!

[boyzoma]

Thanks, buttertart. Sad to know its happened to someone else, though.

[onceadaylily]

Happy birthday, boyzoma! I'm sure your husband will try and make it up to you this weekend. We've had to do the after-birthday a time or two here, which always felt like a bit of a let down to me, but I used that to barter for extra sushi.

[LindaWhit]

A very happy birthday - hopefully you found something soft for your DH to eat, and you whoop it up on the weekend for your birthday celebration!

[mariacarmen]

Hey, LW, didn't we miss YOUR bd??

[LindaWhit]

:-D No, you didn't miss it. I just didn't announce it. ;-)

[mariacarmen]

i know, i remember that! well shhhhh-happy belated!

[LindaWhit]

LOL! Thanks - it was a nice day/evening. :-)

[nomadchowwoman]

Did you go for tapas?

[LindaWhit]

No, last week's tapas was with a coworker - she was in dire need of sangria. :-)

[nomadchowwoman]

So much for my sleuthing!

[LindaWhit]

LOL! Even if you DID guess, I still wouldn't tells ya. ;-)

[nomadchowwoman]

Best b-day wishes anyway: just b/c they don't arrive on THE day doesn't mean they don't count! (And we can be sure of certain things you were NOT eating.)

Hope it was yummy, LW.

[LindaWhit]

OK, then they were joint birthday tapas and I-really-need-this-sangria. ;-)

And my friend/coworker tried to get the bartender to have the staff all sing happy birthday to me (knowing it had just passed) but he said "oh no! We don't do that anymore - Linda *really* doesn't like it!" I love being a regular. Tee hee!

[boyzoma]

I agree with ncw. Happy belated to you as well.

[mariacarmen]

Happy Birthday! hope the weekend celebration makes up for it! My BF is doing the same tomorrow, so something soupy/mushy will be on the menu....

[boyzoma]

Thanks everyone for the wishes. Dinner ended up being mashed potatoes and gravy & stuffing with gravy for DH and a Turkey sandwich for me. But I can't complain too much. At least there was food on the table!

[nomadchowwoman]

Happy B-day, BZ, and hope you enjoy a real blow-out this weekend, full of mouth-watering delights.

[nomadchowwoman]

Last night, we had sandwiches: leftover pork, slice, on ciabatta, w/mayo, dijon, shaved red onion, and arugula. I made two small salads to as sides: avocado, grape tomatoes, red onion, and sherry vinaigrette and also one of edamame, chopped shallot, rice vinegar and oil and (Thai) basil chiffonade.

Tonight, we're taking a break from the pork, and having salmon w/a pomegranate molasses glaze and chives and lemon zest. Also beluga lentils w/toasted walnuts and feta in vinaigrette. I'm also going to braise the half-head of cabbage (that was the size of a basketball!) languishing in the crisper w/some bacon and onion. Not sure how well that will get on with the salmon and lentils, but I've made this commitment to myself that I shall cook what I buy and be less wasteful--and as such, I'll probably be decorating the plates w/little piles of arugula and spinach as well.

[mariacarmen]

i think the cabbage will go well with the lentils and salmon. I could use making that commitment too, but that's what the BF is for - being the fridge Hoover!

[mamachef]

We need something easy and good (like that ever changes, right?) so tonight I'm marinating chicken thighs in Soy Vay diluted with a little gingerale to cut the sweetness of the marinade; then I'll roll them in sesame seed and Mr. will grill them over fairly low heat while I make some fried rice out of basmati (pre-cooked), a little bacon, onion, egg, nappa cabbage and whatever else I can find in there that needs using. At least temps. here are better than they have been; yesterday was a brain-melter.

[roxlet]

Tonight is Osso Buco and risotto. We had defrosted some veal shanks on Monday in anticipation of buying more and making it for our company. But Costco was out, and we had the very delicious short ribs as plan B.

[buttertart]

Set a place for me, I think osso buco is my favorite braised meat dish.

[roxlet]

I have a friend who always wants us to make osso buco when she comes over, but the DH always thinks that it is such a simple dish that it's not really company-worthy. I say give 'em what they want. It's in the oven now and smells divine!

[buttertart]

Love veal. The sauce it makes.

[Antithesisofpop]

This morning I made a roasted cauliflower soup. I tossed cauliflower florets in olive oil, salt, cumin and smoked paprika then roasted at 400 for about 20 minutes. Afterwards I pureed it in the blender with ample amounts of water, then seasoned with additional salt, fresh ground black pepper and smoked paprika. The flavor is good, but I don't know if it's the cauliflower or the quality of my blender, but the texture was kind of grainy. This was my first attempt, so we'll see how things go in the future.

[mamachef]

Try putting it through a chinois after you blend it. It sounds good though. do you think it would taste nice with garam masala instead of paprika?

[JungMann]

I would also advise the chinois. I find, though, if you make sure the cauliflower is extremely dry before you roast it and process it with cream, you end up with a smoother puree.

[ChristinaMason]

Not wanting to waste a chicken that we've been picking on after roasting on Friday (or Saturday?), I cubed the leftovers and added them to fried onions, ginger, and garlic, steamed new potatoes, peas, chopped spinach, and jarred vindaloo simmer sauce. The sauce, from Cost Plus, had a surprising amount of kick (glad I tasted before "doctoring" with more chili). I tempered the heat with a little plain yogurt and served over brown basmati rice.

Overall, it was pretty good, but I don't love leftover roasted chicken. Meh. DH will enjoy the leftovers, at least. He's less finnicky than I am about less-than-optimal flavors in food, generally (see also: dill-spiced lasagna).

To drink: Climax's ESB (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/...)

[mariacarmen]

"Dirty chicken" - that's what I call 2nd day roast fowl. tho what you did to it sounded really good, even before you added the vindaloo sauce.

[buttertart]

I have a problem with leftover chicken unless it's served cold or spiced up like crazy. Reheated meat in general (unless braised/stewed/curried) tastes off to me. Mine doesn't mind it as much either.

[Harters]

Nigel Slater has an odd-ish idea (which works) in Real Fast Food, for leftover roast chicken. He suggests a quick stir-fry of thin strips, throwing in and leftover green veg (the loose leafed cabbage that we Brits call "spring cabbage" is good). Then add the leftover gravy and a lot od seasoning and bung it into a baguette as hot sandwich.

Told you it was odd. I'm also not generally a fan of reheated meat but sometimes......

[buttertart]

Doesn't appeal, I'm not fond of gravy either. Spring cabbage = Savoy, the wrinkly one?

[Harters]

Nope. Savoy is Savoy for us as well.

Spring cabbage is usually very loose leaves, rather than a tight ball of a cabbage :
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/sainsb...

[buttertart]

Hmm, don't get that here as far as I know.

[roxlet]

Depends on the chicken. I love me a piece of cold fried chicken the next day. I usually use left over chicken in a sandwich or salad (roast chicken, that is). When my DH makes smoke roasted chix, they are great cold.

[ChristinaMason]

This was chicken that had been marinated in mojo criollo, so I felt sort of limited in how I could recycle it. It was fine in an Indian-flavored dish, but next time, we'll try to eat it the day we make it.

[buttertart]

Cold is fine (nothing better than a chicken sandwich, Chinese chicken salad, whatnot) but not hotted up unless spiced into oblivion.

[roxlet]

Gotcha.

[mariacarmen]

agree.

[free sample addict aka Tracy L]

I am with the simple food camp tonight. Roasted chicken, roasted orange cauliflower and a romaine lettuce salad. I was thinking of making quick grits, but the weather got hotter here in N. California. I might save the calories for a cold beer later.

[mariacarmen]

can you elaborate a bit on the orange cauliflower? is that that beautiful orange cauliflower, or cauliflower prepared with orange in some way?

[Phurstluv]

Fried rice with steak, ginger, scallions, edamame and egg. Reheated steamed broccoli and egg rolls on the side. Sweet & sour sauce, of course. There's also leftover penne with sausage, tomato and greens.

[roxlet]

After some pretty rich fare, tonight's dinner is just a marinara with grilled chicken added into the sauce at the last minute to warm up and then the penne tossed with romano cheese and a little mozzarella to make "telephone wires."

[mamachef]

Made a really nice salad of roasted baby beets and potatoes with goat cheese and toasted walnuts, made a sherry vinaigrette, and served it up with a couple of roasted chicken breasts in a zucchini/tomato/pepper sauce. Yum. Early dinner tonight, probably BLT's later.

[onceadaylily]

That salad sounds fantastic, Marci. I'm going to have to play with that combo.

[mamachef]

I could be a little more definite about proportion, if you like, It was REALLY good, and Mr. doesn't like beets but he loved this.

[onceadaylily]

I'd love the recipe. I was curious about the temperature. I'm thinking it was a room temp sort of salad, but could be wrong.

[mamachef]

1&1/2 lbs. med. golden beets, scrubbed
1&1/2 lbs. fingerling or new potatoes, halved lengthwise
2 T. Olive oil
kosher salt, ground pepper
1/2 c. rough-chopped walnuts
1/4 c. chopped chives
3 T. Sherry vinegar (can also use red wine, or champagne..)
1 good cup crumbled goat cheese of any kind (try to get feta that's not too salty if that's the cheese you pick)

Oven 450, racks in top and middle. Beets on lg. foil on baking sheet: fold foil around beets, crimp. 30 minutes, middle rack.
Rimmed baking sheet; toss potatoes w. oil, arrange cut-side down. Place potatoes on top shelf after beets have cooked 30 minutes; bake pots. 20, flip and sprinkle with walnuts. Finish all in oven till nuts are toasted and vegies are soft.
Let all cool; skin beets by rubbing w/ paper towel. Cut all into chunks or wedges, season with salt, pepper and vinegar, and toss again with cheese; sprinkle with chives. Yep, it's a room temp thing, and next time I'm tossing some fennel or romaine into the mix. Enjoy!

[mariacarmen]

That salad sounds perfect for the hot day we had!
Glad you are back, hope all is ok!

[mamachef]

Recipe's right above you here, dear. Thank you for the good wishes; I am glad to be back.

[linguafood]

Pan-seared haddock filets with a quick pan sauce of white wine & butter, maybe some fresh dill that needs used up (PA lingo drives my man nuts haha); side will be steamed broccoli tossed with an olive oil, garlic and tapenade sauce drizzled with some lemon vinaigrette, and roasted baby fingerling potatoes.

[Breadcrumbs]

Back from vacation and managed to pack a nasty cold in my luggage it seems! Mr bc is on the grill tonight doing steak to serve w baked potatoes and salad. I'll be sipping green tea w lemon and honey and planning some meals for the weeks ahead from the COTM!

[MandalayVA]

I have an eye doctor's appointment tonight--one night a week the office stays open until seven--so dinner will be leftover beef daube that I took out to defrost this morning, the "In My French Kitchen" recipe. Yay, high-class leftovers.

[mariacarmen]

Ho hum. Oldsters demanded milanesa, so i made up three batches and froze two, one for tonight. Rice. Salad. Leftover pizza. Nothing to write home about.

[nomadchowwoman]

Milanesa always sounds good. Pork? Chicken? Veal?

[mariacarmen]

you're so nice, cheering me on. Carne asada. actually a teensy bit tough, even though i pounded the heck out of it.

[Cherylptw]

I'm making turkey tacos tonight with the usual toppings & I'm pickling some onions to go on top. On the side, spicy pintos cooked with oregano, ancho chiles, garlic & onion and some rice. Fresh pears for dessert.

[buttertart]

Had people over for dinner on Saturday night and since they were bringing their 15-year-old son didn't want to make anything "weird" (as is my usual wont). Thought about the menu, pestered friends, brain finally waved: it was Canadian Thanksgiving weekend - everybody pretty much likes Thanksgiving foods - so why not that?
For pre-dinner nibble/relish tray: Fourme d'Ambert blue cheese (the guests love blue cheese), melba toast (from no-knead bread), black olives stuffed w toasted slivered almonds, salted nuts, carrot sticks, celery stuffed w cream cheese, and pickled ham (an Iowa thing, baked ham in white vinegar w sliced white onion).
Had chestnut soup, then roast turkey breast, cranberries, Ronald Johnson's mashed potato soufflé (The American Table), RJ Danish red cabbage (Company Fare), gravy, peas braised w shallot, butter, and wine (wanted green beans in beurre noisette w almonds but the farmer's market didn't have them this week), rolls, choc cake (Gustav Anders' cake from Maida Heatter's Best Dessert Book Ever, posted the recipe on "What are you baking IX").
Wanted to make the David Lebovitz ginger cake since more appropriate to the occasion, but since the kid was coming went w chocolate.
The son had a cold so didn't come. !!!

[ChristinaMason]

Yum! His loss.

[roxlet]

So delicious! Happy Thanksgiving!

[boyzoma]

We are going to have a re-do of Sunday night's dinner. Sliced turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, mixed veggies, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls and a nice Gewürztraminer. Then a nap for dessert!

[nomadchowwoman]

Last night we had leftover pork loin braised in milk (more milk added and braised a bit longer), leftover braised cabbage, brand new mashed potatoes, and a salad (butter lettuce, grape tomatoes, blue cheese vinaigrette).

And tonight, we will have that pork loin in yet another configuration. And tomorrow and tomorrow . . .

[mariacarmen]

yum love the maiale al latte! I've made - how did it go with the lemongrass? I've made it with coconut milk, just to add richness, and that worked pretty well....

[nomadchowwoman]

You know, it worked wonderfully w/the lemon grass. It was very subtle, but had a wonderfully lemony herbaceous scent.
Good think we like this pork, b/c looks like we'll be eating it for awhile. : ) Seems as big as it did on Sunday.

[Perilagu Khan]

Good old pork chops baked with rice and Cream o' Shroom. Canned Frainch cut Grain Bains.

Eatcher heart out, Hounds!

[LindaWhit]

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. ;-) That's a late 1960's/early 1970s easy-peasy comfort food meal if ever I saw one!

[chef chicklet]

Yea another satisfying meal!!

[krisrishere]

I'm so excited, one of the carbs I can add back into my diet are corn tortillas (3 to be exact). So tonight I'm making carne asada!

This morning I threw a handful of cilantro, 2 garlic cloves, a jalapeno, juice of a lime, splash of vinegar, an even bigger splash of olive oil, salt and pepper into a small food processor. I threw that in a ziploc baggie along with my skirt steak. I'll grill that up medium-rare tonight, as well as throw together some guacamole. It should be a delicious dinner.

[onceadaylily]

That sounds like an excellent marinade for beef. I'm going to have to try that.

[mebby]

+1 -- that's the kind of diet food I could get behind every day

[chef chicklet]

agreed your marinade sounds wonderful, and I bet your dinner was excellent! I love that kind of meal! What kind of diet is this? It's one I could do if food is this delicious sounding!

[krisrishere]

Thanks everyone - it was delicious! Chicklet, I'm doing the P90X exercise and diet plan. It's pretty easy, you have to cut out all "white" food and, at first, you're limited to 1 serving of carbs a day. Now that I'm 5 weeks into it, I can add in another serving of carbs.

Tonight we splurged a little and I grilled up some burgers (ground sirloin) and had them on whole wheat buns - I can live with that! :)

[onceadaylily]

I defrosted some Italian sausage already, intending to make a cheese polenta casserole, but I might make a pasta instead. Why does this feel familiar? I always want polenta, right up until it's time to make and eat it.

Okay, if I go casserole, I'll pour the cheese polenta into a pan to firm up a little, then I'll layer wilted spinach (with a bit of nutmeg and a splash of cream), cooked sausage and green peppers, caramelized onions, and more cheese, with some toasted breadcrumbs, and bake that until everything has become friendly. I'm pretty sure they'll be some garlic in there somewhere.

If I go with the pasta, I'll cook the sausage, peppers, maybe do shallots instead of onions, and serve it over penne with a vodka cream sauce, a bit of grated parmesan over the bowls, with the spinach on the side. I could always add a bit of tomato something to the sauce, to make the most of the fennel and the green peppers. There might be garlic in here as well.

I can't decide. Please, no one say 'lentils' right now.

[nomadchowwoman]

Either one, please. That's a win-win situation, OADL.

[mebby]

OK, if it ever gets below 80 here again that cheese polenta casserole is first on my list -- that sounds like the definition of comfort.

[onceadaylily]

You should try this sometime. A polenta base has been a jumping off point for many meals in our home. A spinach, onion, mushroom, tomato (sliced fresh tomatoes) version is my favorite. I skipped the tomato tonight simply because I only had canned, and didn't think it would be the same, but, as the oven heats up, I can already tell that the tomatoes will be very missed. I didn't remember that I had sun-dried tomatoes until *after* I assembled it.

Polenta also makes a good base for a spicy bean-based mixture, with lots of hot peppers. Someone on here (nomadchowwoman, maybe?) has a recipe for a polenta that is oven-cooked that I keep meaning to try.

[mebby]

Thanks, OADL. After a couple of meh responses from my mr. years ago, I've avoided polenta, tho I love it. Your combo inspires me to give it another go tho -- I feel like there might be something delicious for everyone there!

[onceadaylily]

Ah, the boyfriend didn't like polenta either (still can't serve it as a side), but the cheese polenta baked whatever has brought him to the fore. I usually add a bit of cayenne to the polenta, and use a garlic or onion salt in the place of kosher. And using chicken stock instead of water never hurts (watch the salt added then, though). Keep in mind the cheese polenta doesn't set up like a firm crust in the way the traditional mixture does. It's still pretty soft.

[chef chicklet]

I know what you mean, I have the same problem with pasta, and great mashed potatoes (um roxlet's potatoes is a must try). I keep telling myself that, I will make the creamy polenta ad spinach this Fall with the braised lamb shanks if its the last thing I do. I love polenta! But perhaps pasta and potatoes a bit more? Ack, I so want to try to expand my culinary skills and palate and not just my pants!

[JungMann]

I have limited time to make dinner so I think I'll go with your pasta dish tonight. Sadly no Italian sausage in the fridge, but I do have chorizo so I'll brown those in olive oil with onions and garlic and wilt in some kale instead of the spinach. A splash of white wine or perhaps a handful of roasted cherry tomatoes and yogurt will sub for your penne sauce. On the side I'll pan roast some shishito peppers perhaps in some reserved chorizo oil with a splash of lemon juice.

[onceadaylily]

Your pasta dish just kicked my pasta dish's butt, JM. I was *this* close to thawing the chorizo instead of the italian sausage, but wanted to save it for an egg and tortilla breakfast-for-dinner meal.

[hannaone]

My family liked the TTeok-galbi I posted about in a previous WFD (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/7370... ), so I made it again with a few tweaks.
I left out the rice cake and added chicken thigh meat (roughly equal amounts of beef rib, pork, and chicken), used boneless ribs, and a bit more of the yujang sauce in the final stage.

Even better than the first time, leaving out the rice cake only affected texture, while the chicken added another level of flavor.

[Harters]

I'm relegated to commis-chef tonight, so I'll just be chopping peppers and mushrooms. And washing new potatoes.

Meanwhile, Mrs H will be filleting a couple of seabass and roasting them in olive oil and dried oregano. The peppers & mushrooms will get fried together. And the new potatoes will also be in the oven being done to a Rick Stein recipe which, nonsensically, he calls "confit potatoes", but which are nothing of the sort. These are just being cooked in the oven with a splash of white wine and a few tomatoes, which ain't a confit in anyone's book, except presumably Stein and his editor.

[nomadchowwoman]

I'd rather have your job tonight, Harters; would happily have Mrs H filleting the fish!

What really annoys me is when restaurants take a lot of poetic license in writing their menus and just call things whatever they feel like it, without the courtesy of quotation marks, which signal that's what's coming is an interpretation/reconsideration/completely different dish--so the diner can ask accordingly. I don't want to be happily anticipating one thing only to get something quite different.

[gembellina]

Tonight will be monkfish wrapped in pancetta and roasted, with Nigle Slater's baked tomatoes stuffed with garlicky butter beans. Might have to go a little off-piste with small toms and smaller beans as the likelihood of finding big beef tomatoes in Tesco is pretty slim. God I hate that place!

[LindaWhit]

Yes, but the big blue reusable cloth bag from Tesco is WONDERFUL! LOL Earlier this year, my mother was visiting my youngest stepbrother, who lives in England with his family, and she told my SIL that I like using "different" reusable bags for my grocery shopping...so my SIL dug out a big Tesco bag for me. It certainly gets noticed here in the States. :-)

[gembellina]

well, that is true. i do love my hessian bag with ladybirds on it! and they do a very good insulated carrier bag for frozen stuff. and they sell sriracha chilli sauce. but my local one is open til 10pm and they tend to sell out of milk, bread, tomatoes, fresh herbs, chicken thighs, smoked bacon and everything else useful by about 7pm, and I don't usually get there after work until 7.30. I suppose the solution is to get my lazy bum out of bed on a saturday and do my shopping then!

[LindaWhit]

Isn't Tesco one of your major supermarket chains, gembellina? They sell OUT of milk and bread????

And I just Googled them - I see they've entered the U.S. market on the West Coast as "Fresh and Easy". :-/

[Harters]

And there was me thinking you already had one rapacious company, in the form of Walmart, without needing to import these ba&tards.

That said......if you'd like to take all of the company, very many Brits will be thankful.

[LindaWhit]

Nothankyouverymuch, Harters. We have quite enough rapacious companies located in the States now. :-)

[Harters]

http://www.tescopoly.org/

[LindaWhit]

Yup - looks like they went from 3 to 168 stores in the States within a few years. Lovely. Well, so far, they've not made it to the East Coast. We're pretty well saturated in large-scale supermarkets in New England.

[Harters]

Having saturated much of Britain, Tesco (and a couple of other supemarkets) are now branching out into very local convenience store type outlets. No doubt it will see off many more remaining local shops in our small communities.

That said, there's been talk of one coming to where I live and it would, IMO, be an asset - not so much for seeing off the crap small shops we have in the village but for some welcome competition for the very crap convenience store we alrewady have. I'm not popular locally for saying that on the village discussion board!

[gembellina]

i know, hard to believe but there it is. i had no idea they'd expanded to the US, I can only commiserate.

actually, after all my complaining, they had everything i wanted and more, as they've just started stocking a range of fresh asian ingredients like curry leaves, baby aubergines, and all sorts of other things i don't recognise.

but in the end i got home so late that i didn't have time for baking and roasting, so it was a packet of stir-fry veg with a packet of ready-cooked rice and a jar of sauce, for shame. it was actually delicious - coconut, lemongrass and ginger i think, by wagamama. with a pan-fried cod fillet on the side, from the fishmonger, not from tesco!

[eight_inch_pestle]

A last second dinner party for four, but for my oldest and dearest friend (visiting from out of town), so I wanted to do what I could on short (4 hours) notice.

For snacking, his favorite dip in the world: roasted eggplant mashed with loads of aged Parmesan, some minced garlic, lots of cracked black pepper, enough olive oil to bind, enough fresh lemon juice to sing, and minced parsley for garnish. Just some table crackers for dipping. Around this time a few bottles of wine opened themselves and started roaming the house to see if they could find some fun.

First course, squash soup. Delicata squash simmered in nothing but a nice local organic non-homogenized heavy cream, a fresh bay laurel leaf, kosher salt, and a few gratings of nutmeg. Pureed the mixture, thinned it with a little whole milk and dry sherry, and served the soup in very small bowls topped with a blush (blush? who says that?) more grated nutmeg, minced chives from the yard, a dollop of truffled fromage blanc, and some homemade mini-croutons tossed in a brown paper bag with more chives and a little fresh rosemary.

Second course, salad. Frisee, cranberry-walnut goat cheese, crumbled bacon, little silver-dollar-sized rosemary-beet pancakes, a dijon/sherry-vinegar vinaigrette, a drizzle of truffle oil, black pepper.

Third course, fish on shredded brussels sprouts. Sauteed the veg in olive oil and homemade lard with garlic, lemon juice, quartered fresh black mission figs, and (you guessed it) torn bacon. On top of that went wild salmon fillets roasted with fresh bay and pounded white pepper. For about 30 minutes I thought I might be able to pull off homemade herbed fettuccine as a bed for the fish, relegating the brussels sprouts to a side, but in the end couldn't swing it without risking making a disaster of the kitchen and creating a reaaally long break between courses. And it was a weeknight for one of our guests.

Fourth course, GF put together her wonderful apple crisp. Nothing more I can say other than that the girl knows her way around a crisp. I'll probably have some for breakfast.

[gembellina]

The dip sounds delicious, definitely one to remember. I'm intrigued by the pancakes - I'm imagining very pink blini-type things?

[eight_inch_pestle]

Blinis would be awesome, too, if more adventurous in a salad. These are just grated beets and minced rosemary tossed with flour and sauteed until browned and caramelized. I use a small (8-inch) pan and either cut the resulting cake into quarters or, if I'm feeling delicate, use my smallest cookie cutter to make tiny rounds.

[gembellina]

ah ok, got it. sounds good. i love the goats cheese/walnut/beetroot/salad combo but it can be hard to make it seem modern - this is a nice twist.

[mariacarmen]

i want to be invited to your LONG notice dinners! everything sounded wonderful. I just made my first very standard moutabel with eggplant over the weekend and we loved it, but the addition of the Parm sounds like a winner. and that soup! the blush of nutmeg (you say that and i love ya for it!), the truffled fromage blanc.... wow.

[LindaWhit]

THAT is a "short notice, thrown-together" meal? Damn. I wanna visit you on short notice, eip. ;-)

[nomadchowwoman]

+3 on that four-hour feat of a feast .

[ChristinaMason]

Think she'll give up that crisp recipe? Also, what LindaWhit said.

[eight_inch_pestle]

Will definitely get her to post it tonight. Don't think it looks terribly complicated from what I can see out of the corner of my eye while puttering around doing my stuff, but man, if you like fruit and brown sugar and cinnamon-flavored oats? Yum.

[ChristinaMason]

<if you like fruit and brown sugar and cinnamon-flavored oats>

my dearly beloved might even kill for them.

[Novelli]

Tonite I was lazy. I made some quick spaghetti cacio e pepe, spiked with crushed pepperoncini.
I didn't get my pasta fix this weekend, so this helped.

[roxlet]

We had some family to dinner tonight, and were kind of faked out by the weather, which we expected to be chillier than it was. Anyway, the DH made the short rib recipe from Ad Hoc at Home, which was delicious, and I made the buttermilk potato souffle from Ronald Johnson's book, which proved to be a good underlayment for the short ribs and sauce. We started with corn soup, which had been previously made and frozen, and it was a true hit of mid summer. Dessert was pumpkin and pecan pies, which I made earlier today. Both were wonderful -- if I do say so myself, and I do!

[ChristinaMason]

Could you please paraphrase the potato recipe? I've looked for it without luck. Thanks.

[roxlet]

Boil 4 medium potatoes in salted water. Stir 1/4 tsp of baking soda into 1/2 cup of buttermilk. Put 1 tsp salt, 2 tsps of sugar, 2 tablspoons of butter in a bowl and rice the cooked potatoes into the bowl. Mash with the buttermilk until smooth, Add enough milk to make the mixture thickly soup y rather than stiff -- plus or minus 2 cups of liquid in total incl. buttermilk. Butter a souffle dish with part of two tblesps of melted butter. Put in the potatoes into the souffle dish and pour the rest of the melted butter on top. Bake at 325 for 30 mins or so, but do not allow to brown. The final dish should puff up slightly but still be creamy. It is more mashed potatoes than souffle,

[ChristinaMason]

Thanks. You rawk.

[buttertart]

I like it a bit browned, actually. "Caught" as my mother used to say, like the meringue on lemon pie.

[ChristinaMason]

I always ask for extra-brown pizza and toast, so for me, it's a no-brainer!

[roxlet]

My husband browned it last night, and he thought it looked great. He also thought that we'd want to make it a bit less "soupy" than the book says...

[buttertart]

Yes, you want it a bit softer than you'd normally serve mashed potatoes but not really loose.

[buttertart]

That sounds like a very nice dinner indeed. The pies are what I should have had on Saturday night!

[roxlet]

And pie is my son's favorite breakfast. WHat?? It's got eggs, and butter and wheat and in the case of pumpkin, a vegetable, and in the case of pecan pie, nuts. What's wrong with that?

[buttertart]

He has medical justification for that, it was my father-in-law's favorite breakfast too.

[ChristinaMason]

I'm making a roasted teriyaki pork loin. Put my CI's New Best Recipe book to good use by riffing off their method: dry and season the meat, sear it in a medium-hot pan (fat side last), then roast on a v-roaster pan 40 min. or so, let rest, and make a pan sauce. I rubbed the meat with kosher salt, pepper, and a little dry mustard and ginger powder. After removing the meat, added minced onion, shallot, and garlic to the pan, deglazed with a bit of orange-pineapple juice and chicken broth, reduced that down, and finished off with some soy, hot pepper flakes, and bottled teriyaki glaze (needing using up)

Brushed more teriyaki on the pork about 20 min. in. Will serve with white rice and buttered peas.

[ChristinaMason]

I think this is only the second time I've ever made pork loin (as opposed to tenderloin). I've been completely won over, possibly because I slightly undercooked it. I was surprised how juicy and flavorful this cut was, considering it had almost no visible fat. Definitely going to try it again, maybe stuffed next time with a sagey dressing?

[onceadaylily]

I'd definitely want a report on the stuffed loin.

[buttertart]

Make the sablés in that book. They're great.

[twodales]

I've just attempted sables` for the first time. The dough smelled and tasted delightful...the end product lacked something.

Which book are you referring to by Ronald Johnson? I'd like to see the recipe but don't know where to look. Thanks.

[buttertart]

Did you use the CI More Best Recipes sablés recipe - and use enough salt?
The apple cake is in Ronald Johnson's The American Table as is the mashed potato soufflé, the red cabbage in Company Fare. All his books are great.

[twodales]

I will have to try the CI recipe. We got hooked on them when friends brought us a huge bag back from France. We took them with us when we a had a driving holiday (also around France) and nibbled away at them in the car. They are not that easy to find around here so thought I would try making them.

Thanks for the Johnson titles as well.

[Antithesisofpop]

Today I put a chicken in the crockpot. I used half the chicken to make a pot pie with what was possibly my best pie crust to date. I have reserved the other half of the chicken to make curried chicken salad tomorrow and I'm simmering the carcass now to make some chicken stock. That bird will not have died in vain! Had white Marques de Caceres Rioja from Spain.

[eight_inch_pestle]

Yum yum across the board.

(My gf is from Hesston and my brother-in-law from Newton)

[Antithesisofpop]

I'm pretty new to Kansas. I moved out here 3 years ago from South Carolina. I never made Chicken Pot Pie before moving out here, but winter before last I started making miniature pot pies in ramekins with 1/2 frozen pilsbury biscuit on top. I finally decided to try a real full-sized version with a piecrust. It was delicious.

[boyzoma]

Cherylptw - Good call on 300. It was getting a little bit hard of a sort to find a recipe I wanted to do. I'm a little divided on the number.

Tonight I think we will just rummage through the fridge and micro something. All the turkey fixings are reserved for tomorrow night's "left-over" night. ;-)

[Cherylptw]

I started to change over at 250 posts as I noticed that sometimes people continue to post after the original 200 anyway which is why I mentioned going a bit further...and to tell you the truth, I think 300 is still too long but we'll let it roll for this thread at least and see if there are more concerns.

[boyzoma]

I agree with you. 300 is a bit too long. I have to search through the thread a lot more than before, using the "find feture" as well as they do repost to the older thread because of a response to something. IDK - maybe 250 would be a good number??? Personally, I don't like to go into threads over 300-400. Things tend to get redundant (no offence to any CH's).

[eight_inch_pestle]

It's funny how this all reveals people's web habits. To me, the bigger pain by far is trying to remember which WFD thread I want to search through. I actually couldn't care less if the actual thread is 20,000 posts long: I can always remember "ChristinaMason Stroganoff" and from there "find" is my friend. But that's just how my weird brain works. Perfectly happy with 200 or 500, and don't really post enough to have a vote anyway.

[ChristinaMason]

I'm flattered ;-)!

[Harters]

Yep - found 300 a bit long. Not unbearably so but a bit so. Was happier when we were at 200.

[mariacarmen]

Moi aussi.

I have never found the "find" function to work. at all. sure it's user error, but don't know what i'm doing wrong.

[JerryMe]

Deliciousness on my plate tonite will be either french toast from stale big french loaf bread or tuna melts to use up the remaining celery. I'm good w/ either but man - I want some of what other CHer's are having!

[rhoneranger]

A bottle of Sebastiani Secolo with lazy Lady Trillium, Brie de Meaux Rouzaire, Bier Meck, Speck di Alto Adige a warm ciabata and olives.

[rhoneranger]

... and watercress salad.