So...whats for dinner?

We bought DH's parental home and they left his younger brother behind.  He was a joy to have with us.

Chabba, isn't that amazing! I suspect that you all know and love each in ways that only come from sharing the same space.

Today is bitter and damp, with a cold wind coming from the north. I stayed up way too late last night watching returns and was still at my client's office by 8am. Home by 10. I just feel chilled to the bone, so for lunch I wanted something warm. I sautéed some leeks, carrots, a bit of yellow cauliflower and some broccoli before adding some homemade chicken stock and my great Pepin trick, a bit of potato flakes. When everything was tender, I whizzed it in the blender. Bake into the pot to rewarm with just a tiny bit of heavy cream. Delicious! Warm! At least 2 servings of vegetables in a most delicious bowl. I think this is when cooking is astonishing; when you can take bits and bobs from the fridge and turn it into delicious food.

Dinner is chicken with mushrooms, white wine, lemon, and lots of garlic with a bit of pasta. I learned this technique back when I was a subscriber to the Cuisinart Cooking Magazine. What a wonderful magazine that was. I lost most of my copies in one move or another. I see complete collections on ebay every once in a while, but haven't hit that Buy Now button yet.

*susan*

Nancy, your dinner sounds yummy--fish tacos and black beans.  I love fish tacos.

Michelle, thinking of you and hoping your treatment is going well.

Tonight's dinner is leftover white chili and a tossed salad. 

Here is a pretty good picatta recipe. Restaurant versions use a lot more butter of course. I use homemade chicken stock or pasta water in place of canned low-salt chicken broth. I prefer salted capers but will use any caper. [I love capers.] Finally, I don't do a flour-butter roux, instead, I prefer to just finish the sauce with butter. A thickened sauce doesn't appeal to me that much.

Finally, sometimes I sautee some lemon slices in the oil and butter to flavor the oil removing when I start to cook the chicken. If I have an organic lemon, I will often use the lemon zest and add with the wine and juice.

CHICKEN PICCATA

 4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves

 3 tablespoons butter, room temperature

 1 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour

 Additional all purpose flour

 2 tablespoons olive oil

 1/3 cup dry white wine

 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

 1/4 cup canned low-salt chicken broth

 1/4 cup drained capers

 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Directions

Place chicken between 2 large sheets of plastic wrap. Using meat pounder or rolling pin, lightly pound chicken to 1/4-inch thickness. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Mix 1 tablespoon butter and 1 1/2 tablespoons flour in small bowl until smooth. Place additional flour in shallow baking dish. Dip chicken into flour to coat; shake off excess.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in each of 2 heavy large skillets. Add 2 chicken breasts to each skillet and cook until golden and cooked through, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to platter; tent with foil to keep warm.

Bring wine, lemon juice and broth to boil in 1 skillet over medium-high heat. Whisk in butter-flour mixture and boil until sauce thickens slightly, about 2 minutes. Stir in capers, parsley and remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over chicken and serve.

Bon Appétit

March 1998

Am tempted to try that recipe Susan, tho I am not a huge caper fan, which is why I guess I have rarely made chicken piccata, or selected it when out. Somehow this recipe spoke to me.....I'd just probably reduce those salty little buggers.



Had a good friend from school (who also left this year) over for lunch. She is a fairly particular eater, and I worried about taking her out of her comfort zone, so I decided to stick with basic sandwiches...chicken salad, and BLT's with cole law and she even tried my butternut squash soup. I neglected to mention the leeks in it! We had her favorite dessert.....M+M's. It was great to see her!



I am also tired from watching every last bit of election coverage....but fortunately all I had to do this AM was prep the sandwiches and cole slaw by noon! I think I might even get to bed at a decent hour tonight. Pretty tired, but am blaming it on the new meds my MO prescribed to reduce the temp regulation SE issues from the tamoxifen which really interferes with my sleep. So this med has sleepiness as a SE. Fighting fire with fire I guess....and a good side effect for someone who spends too many hours awake. I do hope it works.....



Chabba, did you ever post your pork white chili recipe? Sounds interesting.....

Loved your house purchase bonus story!



Thoughts with you, Michelle, and hope that the traffic wasn't horrendous for you guys today with this pre-mature snowstorm.

Hi everyone

Lacey, I am having my rads in Londonderry so no long trafficky drives.

Our best friends brought dinner tonight --lobster, shrimp and clam chowder!  What a crazy surprise!  We watched the election returns until about midnight last night, was happy with the results.  NH has a female governor and two female senators.  Our son arrived last night from Toronto and will be a big help.  DH doesn't want me going up or down stairs unaccompanied.  I am a definite tripping hazard. 

That's good that your drive is not far.

I go to Good Will to look for cooking magazines and cookbooks. I've found some cookware there as well.



Tonight Sharon grilled some sirloin tip steaks and steamed some vegetables. Since she's working, we make sure there are left overs so she and Chrissy can split up the leftovers for lunch.



Sharon starts teaching Friday, and has been busily preparing. I'm listening to her, "100Kg is 980 Newtons, at an angle of 30 degrees....the normal force is..force normal ....the cosine of 30 degrees..m g...." and similar stuff. Not quite pillow talk, but it will do just fine. :-)





Michelle, it's good to see you on here. Don't trip on the stairs, please!!! For what it's worth, many of my posts are typed on my smart phone and I don't type even the 20wpm you mentioned with my two thumbs....



Eric

Michelle- Good to see a post from you. Yes, please be careful on those stairs! What a wonderful dinner your friends gave you!! I was very happy with the results as well. ;-))

Michelle, glad to hear from you. Please be careful and don't trip, though its one of those things that you can't see coming. Sounds Like that was a fantastic meal.

Channa, I am with you on a wonderful gift that meat is.

Eric, sounds like Sharon is really ready to get in the classroom.

Much love to all

I love capers, too, but don't have them often because of the saltiness.  I find rinsing them well helps.  My pork picatta recipe was really good and simple.  It's a WW recipe and so has less butter than Susan's chicken picatta.  I use quite a few WW recipes and have found them to be tasty.  Same with Cooking Light recipes.

DH has requested pasta for tonight.  Will use a delicious bottled marinara sauce, Sal & Judy's Heart Healthy.  Sal is a local chef who has run his own restaurant for many years.  I just add Italian sausage which is made by a Louisiana supermarket, Rouses.  I need to start using whole wheat pasta but I have a supply of Dreamfield's on hand so will use that.  And easy main dish.

The bag of CSA veggies is still sitting in the kitchen.  Must deal with it.  Green onions to chop up for seasoning and bag for the freezer.  One really pretty veggie was Turkish eggplant.  It's small and glossy and bright yellow and orange.  Not quite sure what I'll do with it.  Also fingerling sweet potatoes?  I tend to think they're just immature sweet potatoes!  I wonder if these farmers are experienced farmers.  The farm is adjacent to a lodge where people go to hunt quail and the farm supplies veggies to the chefs at the lodge.  The farmers experiment with unusual veggies.  My father was an excellent gardener so my standards are a bit high.

One veggie I was happy to get is okra.  I'll cook it with garlic and some tomato and put into the freezer for adding to gumbo.  We also like eating it "smothered."

Thinking of you today, Michelle.  Be careful on those stairs!  Check in when you can.

Hoping everyone has a good Thursday.

For you ladies with tablets there is an app that lets you type in what you have on hand and gives you recipe ideas from those ingredients - kind of interesting.  I usually don't follow the recipes because the ones that come up trigger a recipe thought of my own.

Michelle - glad you are home and having your rads locally - be careful on the stairs!  Wish we were all closer geographically so we could bring you dinner too!

carole - I usually do twice baked sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving, but I also like to roast them in a casserole dish with pineapple and pecans.

Auntie,

I have a cook's illustrated book but refuse to give that company my personal information. They do some things well, particularly what I think of "traditional New England comfort food." But Chris Kimballs fear of heat reduces my interest. Their recipes are very well thought out, and I find watching the show on Create useful. Someone I know made one of their Thai recipes and it was the most Americanized version of Thai food you can imagine! I think being one of their chefs would be fun. Not the on-air ones, but the ones scurrying around in the back.

Our trip to the Cape has been delayed since our hosts don't have any power. I may come to regret defrosting the leg of lamb we are taking with us. Guess worst case, I will call a bunch of friends and we will all enjoy it together. We have three inches of snow on the ground, and it has gotten cold.

*susan*

p.s. Just checked EatYourBooks.com and I have TWO cook's illustrated books: Soups and Stews, and Best Recipes ever.

That's a shame about your trip to the Cape.  I have never been, but really want to see that some day.  Maybe they will get power back soon.  We only had rain yesterday, but one of the guys I work with comes from NJ, near the shore, and got 5 inches of snow.  Usually we get snow and he gets rain.  Must have been a weird angle that the storm came in or something.  But I am grateful we just had rain.

I forgot to ask about my CSA veggies.  We didn't get them last week because of the storm, so we got twice as much this week.  Got radishes, beets, butter lettuce, peppers, tatsoi, turnip, kohlrabi, white acorn squash, purple carrots and celery.  I don't know what to do with the tatsoi, turnip, kohlrabi, or radishes. The turnip and kohlrabi are huge.  Anyone?

Carrie, my MO prescribed Neurotin (Gabapentin is the generic) for the night hot flashes.

I slept through the night last night, but did wake up really, really groggy....no free lunch with any of these meds! I really didn't want to take another prescription drug, but she was determined to try to help me with the lack of sleep. I'm on the lowest dose (100 mg) and supposed to increase gradually, but not sure I will need (or want) to. Need to check back with MO.



So, the veal story...skip this if you are on the fence about veal consumption....

When we were out for our anniversary dinner we had this conscientious young server who, as we started to order, tried to describe the specials that were being offered that night. They were all veal. She described how the restaurant just received an entire calf carcass (my word) which they would be using every part of, setting off lots of mental images for me (coincidentally, I had seen an excited tweet about the arrival of the whole carcass to the restaurant kitchen that afternoon while checking out the menu...it was weird, it just popped up!). The server went on to say how carefully the animal had been fed and cared for in Vermont and I was starting to want to name and adopt it! She then assured us how humanely it was slaughtered, etc., etc. and when she saw our concerned faces (way TMI!) shared that she herself was a vegetarian, but then offered the first appetizer choice, veal tartare.....OY! We decided we didn't need to hear the rest of the offerings, since we just could not munch on that sweet animal. Someone needs to help that gal limit her info to "grass fed"! I haven't eaten veal for a number of years, and now that will for sure continue. However at this point I don't want to challenge my ability to eat other meat products....baaaaaaa!