So...whats for dinner?

MinusTwo

Lacey - HOORAY - now I won't have to haunt you this week.

I ended up polishing 27 silver plate serving pieces - many ornate & intricate. Ouch. It's hard to find an outlet. Kids don't want to bother polishing. Consignment shops don't even want these dishes & trays & pitchers. But I discovered much to my surprise that the coin & jewelry dealer who buys sterling silver for the price of the metal now buys silver plate. Not for the value of the thin silver plate coating, but the base metal underneath now has value - copper or brass or whatever. I'm headed to see him tomorrow. I don't really expect to make any money to speak of. Maybe enough for a good dinner. This project is so my son won't have to deal with all the stuff when I eventually croak. Or just in case someone I don't know yet dies and leaves me a cottage on an ocean, I'll be ready for a quick move.

ChiSandy

Nancy, I've been using gallon Ziploc freezer bags even though they're way oversized. I do that on purpose so that I can clip the bag to the side of the plastic container, which has straight sides. I've heard too many horror stories regarding using stockpots or Dutch ovens: the latter have to be deep enough to fill up past the circulator's "minimum" mark, but at the cost of...well, cost, not to mention weight. The problem with both is that they're round, so clips can't get a firm enough purchase to keep bags from falling into the water. What I do is use those wide "chip clips," sold for re-closing potato and tortilla chip bags. They wouldn't work on a round pot--but they're perfect with the container's straight edges. I guess that when the sealer comes I'll likely cut the bags over-length so that the vacuumed-flat part is long enough to fold over the edge and be clipped, with the food end still fully submerged.

auntienance

Sandy, I have an 8 qt square cambro container that I use, as well as a larger one for roasts. I clip mine to the side with a large metal binder clip. That usually works fine, but occasionally one will still float. It's usually one that's been frozen then thawed (like a chicken breast.) What I probably should do is rebag it before the bath as obviously, some air has gotten into the bag.

Off to the store today, hoping for some dinner inspiration. Last night was two fried eggs and a piece of Canadian bacon on a toasted English muffin. DH had a pork burger which he grilled himself.

carolehalston

Enjoyed your catch up post, Lacey. The granddaughter is beautiful.

Dinner last night was warmed up black eyed peas and freshly cooked brown rice. Our salad was very good with iceberg lettuce (a head lasts a long time!), canned artichoke hearts, avocado and kalamata olives. Creamy Caesar dressing and Parmesan cheese.

Tonight will be a version of “spaghetti pie” made with leftover linguine with red sauce. Another salad similar to last night’s.

My friend/house cleaner was here four hours today! She hadn’t believed me when I told her my house needed cleaning despite its orderly appearance

Beaverntx

Lacey, I share your cooking pain with folks who have different dietary needs! Tonight's main dish( for the two of us) was scrambled eggs to use the leftover egg whites from cooking for granddaughter who can only have yolks! Also had mixed begs (nuked) and Alexis sweet potato puffs fixed in the air fryer.

Still in early stages of learning to use the air fryer but having fun with it. Have only used the fry function so far but am looking into recipes for other functions. Anyone have favorites to suggest?

SpecialK

Preparing to be out of town for more than two weeks, so trying not to shop and trying to make dinner out of what is left in the fridge and freezer. Tonight was penne with turkey meatballs and marinara, which I stretched with an additional can of diced tomatoes and some parm shavings on top. Also had three slices of garlic bread left and made a wedge salad with some Gorgonzola crumbled on top. The next couple of days may produce some interesting meals as I get down to the last of the supplies!

lacey - good to “see” you,and your precious DGD is adorable, I am envious! Not sure I will get to grandmahood, so I live vicariously.

MinusTwo

Special - not sure exactly when you're leaving, but I am SOOOOO jealous. Have a wonderful time & please report back on your favorite 5 locations/activities - in addition to any exciting meals.

SpecialK

minus - wish I could take you in my pocket! December was crazy (more so than usual with travel/guests/new car/house shopping on top of the holidays) so we need this trip for sure! We are leaving super early Sun morning, breaking the trip initially in L/A and Santa Barbara for a couple of nights, then on to the North Shore of Oahu for five nights for some relaxing, Waikiki for two nights to visit some friends, on to Maui for six nights and likely more adventure activities, back to LA for a night, then home. We have mapped out some places to eat, so will report in for sure! We will definitely be eating some malasadas.

carolehalston

I had taken two beef filets out of the freezer yesterday morning for dinner last night, but I was at a loss for a veggie side or salad. When I suggested a pizza, dh agreed without hesitation. We ate in the living room using paper plates while watching the Jeopardy champions competition.

This morning my wedding ring is tight. The price of enjoying pizza!

It's a dark, menacing day but I need to venture out to the supermarket.

MinusTwo

I want to thank everyone who has ever posted on this thread. I was always a "by the book" cook. If it wasn't in the recipe, I didn't add it. If I didn't have an exact ingredients, I didn't start cooking. You all have taught me to be much more adventurous. I'm still more comfortable starting with a recipe, but I'm no longer afraid to experiment with changes - even the first time.

Eric - this new recipe is in your honor as a vegetarian. The pre-washed, peeled baby carrots were on sale so I used a pound of those & just cut them in half. I didn't have chiles de arbol, so I added 1/2 a can of hot chopped Hatch Green chilies. And I didn't see the "or" so I also added red pepper flakes. And I just mixed some pure sesame oil w/a bit of water for the tahini taste. It was delicious if a bit "fiery". I will make it again.

Sticky Roasted Carrots with Citrus & Tahini

1 small red onion peeled & cut in 1/2" wedges; 2 TBLs lemon or lime juice plus more for seasoning; kosher salt & black pepper; 1 lb small carrots, scrubbed & quartered lengthwise; 1 small unpeeled blood orange, tangerine or lemon thinly sliced, seeds removed; 4 chilies de arbol lightly crushed or 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes; 2 TBLs pure maple syrup or honey; 1/4 cup olive oil; 1/4 cup tahini.

Preheat oven to 425. Toss onion & lemon together in a bowl & season with S&P. Let sit 8-10 minutes to lightly pickle. Drain onion, discarding the liquid.
On a rimmed baking sheet, toss onion w/ carrots, oranges, chilies, syrup & olive oil.
Roast, tossing occasionally until carrots & citrus slices are totally tender & caramelized at the ends - 25-30 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine tahini with three TBLs water in a bowl, Season with S&P.
Spoon some sauce on the bottom of a large serving patter. Top with carrots/onions. Provide extra tahini sauce on the side.

Serves 4-6
(From This Week)

Beaverntx

Dinner tonight was fettuccine with light Alfedo sauce from a jar to which I added sauteed green onions, green and red pepper and chicken chunks. Tasted as good as it looked!

BTW, can highly recommend the Alexis sweet potato puffs!

carolehalston

Last night's dinner was outstanding. The beef filet steaks were cooked perfectly, using the cast iron grill skillet. The steamed broccoli was also exactly as we like it, not too raw and not too cooked, with a little butter and fresh lemon juice for added flavor. The salad was a throwback to Betty Crocker days. Canned pineapple on a crisp lettuce bed with mayo, grated cheddar and roasted walnut pieces.

It's rare that every component of a meal cooked at home is totally satisfying. An added plus was how easily the meal came together. DH assembled the salad while I kept an eye on the broccoli and cooked the steaks.

Tonight will be small catfish fillets. I will probably bread them with seasoned cornmeal or Louisiana fish breading and cook them in a hot oven or the air fryer until they're crisp.

auntienance

Carole, when you cook your catfish in the oven, do you add oil? On a baking sheet or in a dish?

Chicken cacciatore tonight. Waiting for 2-4 inches of snow. Ugh. This after 4 inches of rain.

MinusTwo

Thank heavens the storm has been & gone here. We did have some fierce winds in the night but only 1" of rain. I passed the time by starting to sort the two shoe boxes full of recipes that i have clipped or copied from the internet. These are recipes I've never tried but sounded good. I'm tossing all the cookie recipes and kept only one of two for cakes & pies. Only kept bread that does not have to be kneaded - since my hands won't do that anymore. But of course I have to read every recipe, so this will be a multi day task, and will likely require a second cull. And this doesn't even take into account my 'active' recipe files.

I'm driving downtown tonight for a concert of the Bach Brandenberg Concertos on period instruments. Excited about the concert but not the drive or the downtown parking. At least the streets are dry. A friend is joining me and we will eat at Laurenzos - formerly called house of prime rib. Looking forward to a prime rib french dip.

WorryThePooh

Scrolling through to get some ideas for dinner, I am not feeling inspired today.

Yesterday I made Moussaka and it was delicious, made it with a new recipe using beef mince (ground beef) instead of lamb which I have used normally, and surprisingly it was very good. So many steps involved though, it's simple but takes quite a long time to do all steps and assemble, even before putting in the oven.

SpecialK I thought to myself that turkey meatballs with seafood seemed an unusual combo, but then remembered Americans use the word Marinara instead of Napolitana. Whereas elsewhere Marinara refers to seafood in a tomato based sauce. I hope you're enjoying Hawaii, I so want to visit there one day!

eric95us

Thank you, Minus. :-)

DD and Sharon were in Flagstaff, AZ, skiing for a few days and got home last evening. On the way home, DD called and asked that I cook some beans and rice. When she got home, she mixed up (no recipe) a bunch of vegetables, and other stuff--bell peppers, corn, broccoli, onion, garlic, ginger, peas-sauteed in sesame oil, lime juice, sweet pepper sauce and some soy sauce. All of that went into a rice-beans-"the rest of the stuff bowl". It was both very good and very filling.

DD turned 22 a couple of days ago. I can close my eyes and still "see" her in the little plastic basket on the scale and now in less than 5 months, she'll be walking across the stage to receive her university diploma. All I can say is "WOW!!!!!!!!!!".

carolehalston

Double WOW, Eric! I feel like I've been there for the last part of the growing up process. It's so nice to hear about a parent's enjoyment of a relationship with a young adult child. The beans and rice bowl sounds. . . interesting to someone who grew up with beans and rice as a frequent food.

Nance, I use oil spray when I oven fry fish. I don't have a good spritzer at present so I rely on the canned olive oil spray. And I use either a glass pyrex dish or a metal pan.

However... I didn't oven fry the catfish last night. I pan fried it in a small amount of canola oil heated almost to the smoking point. I had four smallish fillets and we devoured them. DH as always slathered his with his home-made tartar sauce. I squeezed lemon juice on mine. The side was a mashed potato salad, a rare treat. I used the last of some potatoes that were soon headed for the garbage can.

Today I'm thawing pork tenderloin with the idea of slicing it into medallions and making pork piccata. I never know whether an "idea" will materialize when the time comes to cook! My best bet is to do prep before I have my 5 pm cocktail.

Worry the Pooh, it's good to have you check in. I read on another forum that you're dealing with smoke from the fires in Australia. I was fortunate to visit your country and I hate seeing all the pictures on tv. Your moussaka dish sounds good. Do you have your own recipe or do you follow a particular recipe from a cookbook? I haven't cooked moussaka in years because the bechamel sauce adds so many calories. And so much richness and flavor!

DH just came in from his workshop and turned on the football. Now that the Saints are out of the competition, I don't care about any of the games. Of course, all of Louisiana will be watching the LSU/Clemson game tomorrow. People who were lucky to graduate from high school are avid college football fans.

auntienance

Oh my gosh Eric, seems like your DD was just in high school! Time flies too fast these days.

We are in the midst of a major painting project - the master suite. My hands don't allow me to do much painting so I'm the "gofer", paint brush washer, roller loader, etc. Today is day three, and we're both ready for it to be done. It's especially tiring because the area has vaulted ceilings which require an extension ladder to reach. Lots of up and down. Unfortunately, there is probably one more day of work after today.

Last night instead of cacciatore we had comfort food - chicken fried steak with sous vide mashed potatoes and fresh green beans with butter and sunny Paris seasoning. Tonight will be the cacciatore. In between moving drop cloths and washing paint brushes, I made an apple crisp for dessert.

MinusTwo

Eric - I too am just shocked that your DD is 22. Where does the time go?

Carole - I'm the same about prep work. Somehow I always think about piccata with pork medallions but end up with brandy cream sauce.

Nance - I'd be happy to welcome you to paint my house. Oh, I will wait until you finish yours. (LOL) And the bonus is, no vaulted ceilings. Like you, I can no longer paint with my hands. Thank you cancer for neuropathy. I keep putting off hiring someone with the theory that I need to get rid of more stuff first. That's happening, but not nearly fast enough.

French Dip sandwiches made with prime rib were delicious last night. My friend had never been to this restaurant and she was astounded how tender they were.

edited for spelling

eric95us

Tonight I had a good laugh. Sharon was cooking and needed 4 whole cloves of garlic, so I got the garlic out and peeled it for her.

That brought back a memory of college and that got me started laughing/giggling. Mickey was cooking and she needed a whole clove of garlic. Unfortunately, neither of us understood the difference between a clove and a head of garlic.

When she tasted the dish, "Ahh....I think there's too much garlic in it." :-)

My neighbor, Liz, when we asked her about it, laughed as she showed us what a clove of garlic looked like. "You used an entire head of garlic? Oh, my!"

auntienance

Too funny Eric. The first time I made chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, I peeled 40 cloves. In subsequent preparations, I stopped well short of 40 cloves. I hate peeling garlic, even just smashing the cloves to remove the skin. When I go to the Chinese market, I always buy a large container of peeled cloves. What a luxury.

eric95us

The garlic confusion was the first of the scrunched face and "ahh....." moments. Another one was caused by using baking powder instead of corn starch for gravy. Baking powder, if one uses enough, will work, but it doesn't taste "right". My excuse is I had bought different brands of baking powder and corn starch and both were in round white "cans". Clabber Girl brand puts the corn starch in a yellow container and the baking powder in a white container....so that never happened again. :-)

It was in early 2012 when the oncologist called with the diagnosis and DD was in 8th grade. That's when I showed up, so it's been almost 8 years.

eric95us

Apple playing her piano.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsXQAhe8uYY#action=share

I hope this is OK to share.

MinusTwo

Oh yes. Apple was such a treasure.

Here's one of Apple's food posts on this thread from November 2012

For breakfast just about every morning I've been having a home made veggie soup with lots of tomatoes, topped with goat cheese and croutons. yum - I just keep making it. I am hooked.

auntienance

That was sweet Eric - I think about Apple often. Especially when there's talk of squash :-)

More painting today. Oh our aching backs. No dinner inspiration thus far. Oh wait, while rummaging around my recipe box yesterday I came across my Singapore pork and noodles recipe. Haven't had that in a while - bingo!

carolehalston

I did the prep/cooking yesterday at 4 pm and we did have the pork piccata but it turned out excessively piccata. Very salty because I used the rest of the preserved lemon. I had steamed broccoli as my only side. DH had the broccoli, too, but I made him a romaine salad with additions.

Tonight we plan to go to Crabby Shack. I will probably have a salad topped with fried oysters. Or they always have a fish dinner with baby drum which is good.

I actually like painting because it's so transformational. My last major job was our master bath (which I've learned from the H&G network is en suite!) I need to paint the adjoining half bath and laundry room but haven't worked up the ambition. Flexibility for painting in tight areas is a problem these days. My hands still work fairly well.

What an ugly day we're having so far. Dark and rainy outside.

Does anyone else find it amusing that the media is so intrigued with the life decisions of British royals?

Lacey12

Eric, that was really moving to see/hear Apple playing. You seem rich with poignant memories. I’m amazed to think the your DD is almost finished with college....feels like she just left home for that next life adventure.
This weekend we cared for DGD here overnite to give her over scheduled parents a break, and get into training for having her for four days at the end of the month while her parents go away prior to DS2 starting a new job. We were exhausted by the time DS2 picked her up yesterday. That experience, along with your comment about DD’s life stage reminded me of a (poorly paraphrased) statement I heard someone tell an expectant mom on starting her maternity leave, “Enjoy your baby. The days are long but the years fly by”. And that is so true.

A few days ago, I made turkey chili and thought it had a bitter after taste to it. So I looked at all my spice dates and discovered that many of them were several years old. Thus, I am busy replacing all I use fairly frequently. I was shocked at how old some were...and have no idea if the bitter taste was due to the aging spices. We managed to enjoy the chili for two meals anyway.

Tonight off to the Celtics, and looking forward to my standard salmon entree at The Harp. Lately, I ask them to just include sautéed broccoli with it, which feels so healthful...and I then feel less badly enjoying popcorn at the game which DH always gets at halftime.

Minus, I would never have guessed that you were not adventurous about food orep. And, of course, I love your creative meal choices that are out of the standard fare!

Worry, i have also not made moussaka for many, many years due to how many steps are involved and the high caloric content. But it sure is delicious! I hope you and yours remain safe from the fires and traveling smoke.

Nance, I wish I had your energy for home improvement efforts. The clear out is the first effort which is huge. Minus, impressed that you are getting that started

MinusTwo

Special - I meant to post earlier and you may not be checking in while you're on vacation, but I enjoyed the Kualoa Catamaran boat tour. https://www.kualoa.com/catamaran-boat-tour/ We went out to Chinaman's Hat and watched turtles feeding. It's only 45 minutes from Waikiki. Also loved the Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore. It's by the Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. And has an Arnold Palmer golf course if you golf.

Dunch was Quesadillas on flour tortillas - filled with sauteed mushroom, spinach, green onions & grated 4-cheese mixture. Actually quite good but I'll adjust and put cheese on the bottom before the mushrooms & spinach next time - as well as on the top - to hold the fillings inside more firmly. The recipe included shrimp but I was too hungry to even defrost them in cold water. Can be served with salsa, sour cream, and guac for dipping. Again - I was so hungry I forgot to even get the sour cream out of the fridge.

Served with a new Zinfandel I got for Christmas - Paso Ranches from Paso Robles. It is aged in bourbon barrels. Maybe as good as the 1000 Stories Zinfandel that I've been hoarding.

eric95us

Worry, stay safe..and my thoughts go out to the emergency services folks there. That is dangerous work and it gets more dangerous when people are exhausted.

carolehalston

We weren't in the mood to go out to eat last night. The weather was rainy and nasty. DH went to the nearby Subway and bought sandwiches, which served as dinner after our usual pre-dinner routine.

We're into the winter fog season. Warm, muggy, foggy outside.

No menu for dinner yet.

An excess of celebration on local tv this morning. Imagine what could be accomplished if people would get behind a good cause the way they get involved with a football team winning a sports event.