So...whats for dinner?

M0mmyof3

I remember that recall. Both hubby and I got caught up in it. We had gone to a really good restaurant that we have eaten at before and had burgers there. That night I came down with food poisoning and so didn’t my hubby. He didn’t have it as bad as me though. We started thinking about what could have made us sick and the common thing was the romaine lettuce that had been on the burgers!

Thanks for the early birthday wishes

carolehalston

Why is romaine lettuce so susceptible to E coli? For no reason I haven't been buying it lately, instead choosing purple leaf lettuce.

The fish tacos last night were "interesting." I concluded that fish for fish tacos is better cooked fresh with a "crispy" factor. I heated the leftover fish in the oven wrapped in foil as it had been stored in the refrigerator. I made cole slaw dressed with fresh lime juice and olive oil, heated some black beans, heated corn tortillas as recommended by ATK (brush with oil on both sides and heat for 5 minutes in hot oven." Made guacamole with an overripe avocado and diced compari tomatoes and mayo. Condiments were sour cream and jarred salsa.

We assembled our own tacos. They tasted good but the fish seemed like an after thought.

ChiSandy

For Thanksgiving this year we’ll be in London. No reservations that night, as we’re seeing a play (Sir Ian McKellen’s solo show). It’ll be interesting to see if any restaurants are serving turkey

HappyHammer

Nope, never buying Romaine again, either.

Sandy- London sounds wonderful. You will have to let us know what you and Bob have for your "Thanksgiving meal" there. Your updated photo is so good- I admire your weight loss resolve.

Carole- your fish tacos sounded delish- I always like the toppings as much or more than the protein in any kind of tacos.

Eric- pumpkin soup and homemade bread- yum!

We will be going to my sister and BIL's for Thanksgiving Wed-Fri.. There will be 12-14 of us. Meg makes the rice, gravy, dressing, broccoli salad, deviled eggs, green beans and a huge tossed salad with homemade dressings. We live in the SOUTH- can you tell?!?

It sounds like a lot but we don't make a lot of any of it...everyone gets some but we usually don't have many leftovers.

We always bring the turkey- we get it from a local farm and cook it on T'giving morning at her house. I will make the cranberry sauce, pickled red onions for the big tossed salad, and a congealed (yes, old fashioned kind) cranberry salad. DS2 will make some buttermilk biscuits as well.

We are the family who likes the turkey sandwiches as much or more than the traditional meal so we always also bring good bread and mayo- and, use the cranberry sauce. Guess we will have to think about the lettuce, right? No Romaine!!

We have been known to serve a platter of sandwiches with the main meal.

Supper last night- beef stew from the freezer with rice and green beans.

Took ham and bean soup out for tonight- cold and rainy here so that should be perfect. Wish I had some of your homemade bread, Eric!!

M0mmyof3

In my house, I use nothing but iceberg lettuce. Never been sick!

Lacey12

Sandy, a number of years ago we had Thanksgiving dinner in London, and it was hard to get reservations for any of the restaurants that served an actual Thanksgiving menu, (seemed that a lot of ex-pats sought out their turkey dinner early!), so we ended up going to the closest restaurant that had any form of American food. It was called “Old Orleans” and DH recalls that we had jambalaya and other items that might be on a “New Orleans” menu. I just recall that it was a fun dinner with DS1 and some of his newly made American friends attending UCL with him.

Magari, sounds like my hostess for Thanksgiving is preparing the same Ina Garten green beans gremolata that you are making. It sounds tasty, and imo, green beans can use such a topping.

Since a salad with Romaine sounds risky, I will add to my cheese tray, stuffing casserole, and squash casserole contributions, a baby spinach salad with mandarin orange slices, pomegranate seeds, walnuts, and goat cheese, with a poppy seed dressing. ...unless I decide to stick with my fave horseradish vinaigrette.

Tonight we were wiped out after having DGD2 here for most of the day, so we ordered a delivery of pizza and a Greek salad for dinner. As I was pouring the salad into a serving bowl, I noticed that it was Romaine lettuce...I often see Greek salad here made with iceberg. So I called the restaurant and was told their Romaine comes from Yuma, AZ. I was relieved and it seemed fine! But I’ll be generally riding out this ecoli scare with other lettuce types and spinach salads on our plates.

Lacey12

Happy upcoming birthday, Mommy!

M0mmyof3

Thanks Lacey!

carolehalston

Last night was a version of pork piccata made very lemony with home-made preserved lemon. The side was a delicious cauliflower mash made with 1/4 of a block of Greek cream cheese and a couple of tablespoons of butter. Also a tiny splash of cream. Very enjoyable (an enjoyed) meal.

Yesterday on the food network's Kitchen, viewers were asked to vote for Dressing or Stuffing. Dressing won by a slim margin.

We once had Thanksgiving dinner in Hawaii on the island of Maui. We had driven to the top of the mountain (name escapes me) to see the snow that had fallen. On a way down the mountain we stopped midway at a small restaurant for lunch. Much to our surprise the menu offered the traditional American Thanksgiving meal. As I recall, it was quite good.

I always think Eric's sour dough bread would be a good addition to any meal.

HappyHammer

Happiest of birthday wishes to you, Mommy!

Eric- love that y'all take a wagon to the store! Wish our area was more walk-able...we have 2 grocery stores less than a mile from our house with sidewalks on the main roads. However, we would have to cross an 8 lane road right at the stores and it can be a nightmare with a car at that intersection...too scary on foot!

Anyone have a favorite pork tenderloin recipe? I was going to cook it last night but turned out no one was home but me. Need to cook it tonight for sure but, how?

M0mmyof3

Beef roast and roasted potatoes are in the oven

M0mmyof3

Thanks Happy. Can’t believe it crept up so fast on me this year

auntienance

Minus does a pork tenderloin (I think it's a tenderloin) and her famous brandy cream sauce.

Happy birthday tomorrow Mommy.

Tonight is bratwurst with mustardy potatoes and roasted garlic cabbage "steaks". The only ways DH will usually tolerate cabbage is as sauerkraut, braised sweet and sour or cole slaw, so we'll see how this goes.

SpecialK

carole - Haleakala? Will be going there in January.

mommy - Happy Birthday!

Went to brunch this morning with some former co-workers, it was good to see my old friends. I was fortunate to have great support at work when I was diagnosed. Unfortunately, due to my ongoing surgical saga, I had to resign shortly after returning when chemo was done. I had a Southern Eggs Benny - it had the addition of a fried green tomato and brown butter hollandaise. Dinner tonight is TBD. I have some kale and spinach that both need to be used - maybe a salad or a gratin.

We are hosting Thanksgiving this year. We have developed a tradition with longtime friends - 13 of them, and 3 of us, lol! My son will be at the fire station and will miss this year. I am making turkey, dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, a jello salad (my MIL’s recipe - tradition), Brussels sprouts, twice baked sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting, ladyfingers cheesecake with cherry topping, and I have a frozen Key Lime pie from the best bakery in Key Largo. My friends are bringing an appetizer (charcuterie board), broccoli cheese casserole, ham, corn casserole, and apple pie. Excessive, yes, but have you met me? Lol!

auntienance

Special, tell me more about the twice baked sweet potatoes.

SpecialK

auntie - I bake the sweet potatoes whole, then halve them and scoop the inside out, mix with butter, cream, salt, pepper, and a little cinnamon, and whip, then stuff the shells. I put some chopped pecans on topand drizzle with maple syrup and re-heat them in the oven.

Magari

Last night I made sunchokes soup for dinner. Pureed in the pot with a stick blender, finished with whole milk and toasted pumpkin seeds. My husband said it's his new favorite, and it was very easy and relatively quick.

Bought a loaf of Tartine bread this morning, so may make Welsh rarebit for dinner using some of that.

Did a Trader Joe's run yesterday and bought a small organic turkey and fresh cranberries so that we can do a mini Thanksgiving on Saturday in order to have leftovers.

M0mmyof3

Thanks for the birthday wishes

carolehalston

Last night's dinner involved a lot of kitchen time. I cooked an enchilada dish I saw prepared on either ATK or Cook's Country. The prep required roasting halved tomatillos and poblano peppers minus seeds and veins on sheet pan under broiler. The filling ingredients were rinsed black beans, half of them mashed, diced roasted poblanos, spices that included chili powder, coriander powder and cumin, all bloomed in oil in skillet. Also fresh grated Monterey jack and cilantro. Half cup of green sauce.

Green sauce made in food processor: roasted tomatillos, cilantro, garlic and onion powder (substituted for fresh onion and garlic), small amount of chicken broth, 1/4 cup cream.

Half cup of filling in each corn tortilla. Sauce spread on top and additional grated Monterey Jack cheese.

Sour cream and home-made guacamole on the side.

We enjoyed the meal but agreed we couldn't really taste the filling. There wasn't enough wow factor for all the labor involved. I think the poblanos were too mild.

Yes, Special, that's the name of the mountain on Maui. The mountain top is black with lava so the contrast between lava and snow was vivid.

Not sure about dinner. We may go the short distance to Crabby Shack. We depart for Illinois on Tuesday.

M0mmyof3

Thinking leftovers tonight so I won’t have to cook.

MinusTwo

Well I did leftovers last night so I'll have to be more creative today. Hmmm - how about an omelette with fresh mushrooms?

Carole - I agree - it's annoying to spend all that prep time and have the results sort of blah. Have a safe trip. Special - I love the twice baked sweet potato idea. I can not believe the variety of foods for your Thanksgiving. Magari - you always have the most interesting meals.

I usually just roast my pork loin - often with a little apple juice in the bottom of the pan. Sometimes I add apple slices towards the end. My friend roasts and adds potatoes & carrots towards the end. My brandy cream sauce is what happens to the left overs. Now I'm hungry for pork.

MinusTwo

How many of you read Tony Hillerman's books set in Navajo country? They cooked 'fry bread'. I had French Toast for lunch and thought again about what could be the difference.

Turns out sometimes 'fry bread' is deep fried, but more often cooked in a pan & fried in butter or oil just like French Toast. Although often served with sugar and not maple syrup (like my Mom taught me). Or sometimes herbs were put in the egg mixture so it was savory instead of sweet.

Funny - I love French Toast and rarely remember to cook it. It was especially good since I had the old ends of a SF Sourdough loaf. Has anyone ever made this with rosemary or tarragon or dill?

auntienance

Minus, fry bread is a little different in that it's leavened with baking powder and is more like a puffy pita (although lighter.) I make it from time to time as fry bread tacos. Here's one of many recipes.

https://lilluna.com/homemade-indian-fry-bread

I first had it while visiting the grand canyon. I've had it other times directly from the ladies frying it outdoors at the Taos Pueblo. Delicious stuff.

Dinner is still unknown. I have a larder full of food after shopping this morning and still don't know what to have. Possibly chicken pot pie.

MinusTwo

Thanks Nance. I just quickly read a wiki - which said you could make it either way - "deep" fried or just frying the bread. I appreciate your clarification.

The picture in your link reminds me of sopapillas - which I can never find done correctly in Houston. Must be time for a trip to New Mexico. Turns out sopapillas are a variant of fry bread too. Thought this explanation of the origin was interesting.

https://newmexico.heavensentgaming.com/lexicon/sopapilla-frybread-sopaipilla/

ChiSandy

M0mmy—Hippo Birdie Two Ewes, as the greeting card says! Many happy returns.

Navajo fry bread is like crack. Glad I’m low-carb so I’m not tempted.

Last night at my friend’s annual open house buffet he made a great chicken-veg stew (sans spuds or thickeners), plus platters of saucisson sec and cheeses. It was my lunch & dinner, seeing as how all I had for breakfast was an almond milk cappuccino and a handful of cashews. Saturday, at my cousin’s memorial in FL (my sis & I flew in for the afternoon), there was so much food they were begging us to take home leftovers (but the flight was too long to take a gamble on food-poisoning). Sis (who came in from Arlington, VA) & I had salads at Chili’s in the Ft. Lauderdale airport because we needed to kill time before heading to Parkland and she wasn’t sure whether there’d be food. Well, take a huge house full of Jewish mothers & grandmas and a huge family gathering—duh. (It was all I could do to limit myself just to keto-friendly stuff, and not overindulge on that).

Here at the British Airways Terraces lounge at O’Hare (our flight’s delayed >2 hrs), we’re knocking back bubbly and enjoying the hot dinner buffet: including an early Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings (of course, I had to skip the stuffing, spuds and desserts). They also had 3 kinds of Shanghai street crepes, shepherd’s pie, clam chowder and the usual array of crudités, cheeses, charcuterie and pastries. The flight delay means our room is likelier to be ready upon our arrival tomorrow.

We have a dinner res tomorrow night at Rivo, the “fire-centric” carnivore restaurant helmed by star chef Ottolenghi. Wed. night is St. John—my absolute fave in London. Specializes in “nose-to-tail” cooking, and they have their own private label wine list from some Provençal & Languedoc vineyards; quite reasonable for a place that made the cover of Food&Wine’s “30 Best Restaurants in the World” issue. (The dish pictured—bone-marrow & parsley salad—is iconic and my fave there as well). Thanksgiving Day we’ll probably eat wherever—if we wanted turkey on T-Day, we wouldn’t be leaving the USA, now, would we? Friday we’ll eat at Galvin in our hotel. (Breakfast there each morning).

Won’t be riding the London Eye—we have our own Ferris wheel on Navy Pier, and the High Roller in Vegas (same company that built the Eye) is taller. For city views we’ll look for a nice rooftop restaurant in one of those idiosyncratic skyscrapers at lunchtime. Planning to hit as many museums as possible—been to the Tate Modern, which has a terrific restaurant in the basement. Our hotel is across Green Park from Buckingham Palace (but we’ve already seen the changing of the guard, ho-hum). We’ll see Sir Ian McKellan’s one-man show Thursday night, as none of the musicals float our boat (most are hoary old B’way and touring-company revivals & jukebox musicals anyway).

MinusTwo

Super was a deviled egg.

Desert will be Belle Gabrielle - Chocolatier from France It's a delicious chocolate liquor that I like as well or better than the Godiva brand. 15.1% alcohol. I thought about putting it on ice cream, but I think I'll just sip. It's about 1/2 a wine glass full since I have to finish the open bottle. (well, the garbage truck is coming Friday so what can I do?)

WorryThePooh

I had beef mince in the fridge so made a curried mince dish, very easy, browned the meat with onion, garlic, capsicum, threw in curry powder, cumin, chicken noodle soup, chicken stock and quarter cup of rice, frozen peas, simmered it all. Was quite delicious!

M0mmyof3

Thanks Sandy

ChiSandy

Good food on the plane (BA biz class): composed chicken “nicoise” on Little Gem lettuce leaves, field greens salad, pan-seared cod with wilted kale and sour cream potatoes (I left over the spuds). Cheeses for dessert: Danish blue, Brie and WI Prairie Breeze cheddar with nuts. They let me have some strawberries and cantaloupe, plus a dark chocolate almond Godiva meant for first class, once I told them I was low-carb. Breakfast was a bacon-egg panino. Since they knew I wouldn’t be eating the ciabatta roll, they gave me the other choice as well (halloumi cheese & tomato melt on bagel, which I scraped off the bagel & ate). Lunch at our London hotel was the tail end of their breakfast buffet: smoked salmon, smoked herring, coppa ham, tomato (mealy—out of season) and cucumber slices. Off to dinner at Rovi—fire-centric with vegan, pescatarian and grass-fed beef options

ChiSandy

So, reporting on Rovi. Latest venture from Israeli super chef Ottolenghi. Most of the menu is vegan, but there were a few cheese and dead-animal options. Server recommended sharing everything—a nibble, two starters, a small plate and an entree. Started with an assortment of house made pickles (beet, yellow radish, ginger, cucumber, kimchi) and Valdeon blue cheese. Next up was broccolini with whipped peanut hummus, purple micro greens & sprinkled with toasted rye seeds. (We almost did the duck breast but took a pass on it when we were alerted to possibly encounter buckshot, since the chef gets his ducks from hunters). Then steamed smoked mussels in a spicy chili-oil broth with julienned kohlrabi & squid; and a “shwarma” of grilled celeriac cutlets on housemade whole wheat pita and pickled tomato. Entree was the meat option version of a Jerusalem mixed grill: chicken thigh, livers & hearts with picked radishes, Israeli onions, tahini and more whole wheat pita mini-pockets (had to tear off part of one just to try it). Dessert was two cheeses: a “Lincolnshire Poacher” (raw cow milk in a Comte/Cheddar cross style); and a very ripe Dorstone goat Brie. Came with dates, flatbread & quince paste. (I used the flatbread as a “cheese delivery device,” licking the Brie off it). We took home half: Bob was badly jet-lagged because he read & watched a movie on the plane and I didn’t want him falling asleep at the table. Most of the menu was fermented, spicy or both—-we did our metabolisms & gut microbiomes proud tonight.

I met an American expat in the ladies’ room (she moved here 16 years ago from NYC) who said she was a foodie and offered to give me suggestions about where to dine. I told her we were going to St. John tomorrow night, and she hadn’t heard about it! Amazing that I could turn a London foodie on to a place that’s new to her!