liamsaunt

My sister and I started a new food challenge a couple of weeks ago: we put every country in the world, plus every regional cuisine we could think of, into a jar. I pick the country on Monday and we work on a menu during the week and then cook on Saturday. It has to be something that everyone will eat so it is challenging. So far we have gotten Poland (that was the pierogi meal I posted), Canada, and this weekend our first regional cuisine which was West African. It's not meant to be authentic, but just a way to expand our cooking horizons. I made a bunch of dips. Left to right starting with the white one, a feta yogurt whipped dip, then a "papaya" samba (I used mango because there was no ripe papaya to be had)l, roasted red pepper hummus, a very spicy cilantro charmoula, and finally a lemon-paprika oil with cilantro: with flatbread and groundnut soup My niece and nephew liked this so much that they requested all of the leftovers for dinner tonight. The adults had turkey mashed potatoes, spinach, and butternut squash.

Last night's dinner was gai lan in oyster sauce Pineapple fried rice And sticky soy chicken wings

A couple of recent breakfasts. Peppery eggs And scrambled eggs with mushrooms

Chicken and chickpea tagine with couscous. Details in the "cook from your freezer" thread.

Well, I got blizzard-ed out of work today so I hit the freezer for some cooking projects. First, I took out the Capon carcass, and made stock with it, onions, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves, Carrots, Celery, parsley, thyme, dill, etc. No photo, because it is stock. It's meant for a soup on Saturday. I will take a picture then. Then, I took out a pack of Chicken thighs, and made a tagine. It had tomatoes, Chickpeas, Cinnamon, ginger, Cayenne, Coriander, Cilantro, vanilla bean (!), garlic, onion, dates, butter and salt and pepper. I also added a big spoonful of harissa because I had some in the fridge. It's a Mark Bittman recipe from New York Times Cooking. This one: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/7794-chicken-and-chickpea-tagine I changed it up in that I used half the suggested chickpeas and chicken but all of the onions, garlic, spices and also all of the juice from the tomatoes. He says the tagine should be dry, but dry is not to my liking. I served it with Couscous. Here is the tagine: Finished plate in the Dinner! Thread. I also took out a bag of Bread flour, and made a Moroccan bread to go with. I brushed it with Butter and added sesame seeds before baking.

Sandwich night last night. Husband had some of the leftover beef tenderloin from the Super Bowl with arugula and parmesan cheese I had chicken with daikon-carrot pickle, chiles, cilantro and spicy aioli. Kind of banh mi flavors but on the wrong kind of bread.

I have to say, watching Goodell hand the trophy to Kraft was the highlight of my evening. Ha! I did not get pictures of everything I served, but here are some photos. First, Patriots M+Ms. I did not make these, I just thought they were cool. I also had Tom Brady football gummy candies, but no pictures of those. Tenderloins ready to go in the oven: And served with basil parmesan aioli Chicken piccata for the non-red meat eaters. There was more chicken than the one piece that appears in this photo! Cheese-stuffed garlic rolls A couple of post-halftime foods--I did not get many pictures at this point. Cross section of meatwich before it was sliced into smaller serving pieces: guacamole Duck boat parade tomorrow.

Chicken tonkatsu with smashed cucumbers and ginger rice

@liuzhou, what a feast! Pretty basic dinner for me last night: baked haddock with crispy crumb topping, crispy potato slices, and broccoli

Last night, a traditional fish sandwich made with haddock: Tonight, a miso-marinated salmon reuben with kimchi dressing. The recipe was from a cookbook called Asian American--I received it as a holiday gift. The sandwich was interesting, but quite rich. I could only manage half before crying uncle.

Mine is going to be a little weird because I will be cooking twice. My inlaws are coming over early and I will be serving a late luncheon to them and anyone else who is at the house by then. They are older and have lots of dietary sensitivities so I am keeping it pretty basic: Ina Garten's slow roasted filet of beef tenderloin with basil parmesean mayonnaise plus a simple risotto, green beans, and roasted winter squash. Then for actual game time there will be more people and all the junky stuff comes out: guacamole two ways, queso dip, buffalo chicken dip (ugh but the guys all love it), muffulettas, mini meatball sliders and probably some token vegetable thing. I might do chicken wings too. I will be mixing up margaritas and sangria for cocktails plus there will be this really tasty local beer (Trillium) and of course non alcoholic drinks too.

Sunday's dinner also came from the freezer. I roasted a Capon and served it with mashed potatoes, green beans, and Carrots with Chives. I must report some backsliding on my quest to clean out the freezer. After the dinner was over, the capon carcass was returned to the freezer to make stock later. And I added four pounds of turkey meatballs that I made yesterday. Tonight I put in a pound of haddock from my fish share since I am eating alone this week and the share came with Faroe Island salmon in addition to the haddock. I can only eat so much fish on my own. Husband is in Milan for work. I have a feeling he will be eating better than me this week.

Thank you! I had some help making the meal. My sister did most of the work on the pirogies. I just crimped the dough. She also grilled the sausages. This is the recipe I used: http://www.polskafoods.com/polish-recipes/beet-root-salad-salatka-z-burakow

Here is yesterday's freezer meal. I only have the things I made in serving dishes rather than plated because I served dinner on my buffet. The Bratwurst and Chicken Apple Sausages from the freezer: Side dishes were a Beet salad with goat Cheese and hazelnuts: A variation of Polish Hunters Stew with Bacon, Cabbage, and Sauerkraut: Polish Potato Bread And pierogies topped with Bacon, Chives, and caramelized onions

@rotuts you really, really need to defrost your freezer! :-) Here are mine. (Posting these pictures reminds me of the old foodblogs where people would post pictures of their pantries and fridges at the start of their blog.) This is my commercial freezer. As I mentioned earlier, I defrosted it last week so it is pretty empty right now. It won't stay that way for long. The bags on the top are tomatoes that I processed over the summer. The foil wrapped pans are turkey pot pies. This is my "siberia freezer." It's where I put things that I don't have a specific use for. Those boxes you see are prepared hors d'oeuvres that I bought for some unknown reason. I don't usually buy stuff like that. I might try and offload them during the Super Bowl. The bag on the bottom is whey from making cheese. I'll think of something to do with it. Maybe. This is my main freezer. Yes that is a giant bag of parmesan rinds on the door. We eat a lot of parmesan cheese. I put them into soups or risottos. And finally, here is what I pulled out of the commercial freezer (before taking the picture), that I am using for dinner this evening. More of the sausages!

Here is my first freezer challenge dinner. I pulled out a package of Mango Habanero Chicken Sausage earlier this week and cooked it up last night. I was not sure which letter to go with, so decided to just cover as many as possible. I served the sausage on a bed of baby Spinach topped with a salad of brown rice, avocado, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, a jalepeno, a seeded Habanero, red onion, black beans, Mango, Corn, and Cilantro tossed with a Chili-lime vinaigrette that had Cumin and Cayenne in it.

Last night's dinner: a chickpea, kale, and spicy pomodoro stew with pecorino cheese, from the current issue of Food and Wine magazine. It was good, but I liked it better for lunch today. Most soups and stews taste better to me the next day.

@HungryChris I could go for some of that fish and chips! Yum. I made the rest of the pollock into New England style fish cakes and served them as sandwiches with some tots and Grillo's hot Italian pickles (my current pickle obsession). I poached the fish in milk and I don't know if that helped or if the fish was just really fresh, but it tasted sweet and clean. So, two successful pollock meals. I hope I get something else next week though.

So my weekly fish share finally cursed me with the dreaded pollock. I buy a 2 lb/week share and give half to my sister in exchange for her going to the share site and delivering it to my house. But she hates pollock too and her kids refuse to eat it and so she left the entire two pounds at my house! I made a fish cake with some of it tonight and it was actually pretty decent, probably because the fish cake included garlic, ginger, thai basil, kaffir lime, ginger, cilantro, fish sauce and chiles. I loosely based it on this recipe from New York Times Cooking: http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014211-thai-style-sea-scallop-cakes

Oatmeal with blueberries, grated apple, cinnamon and nutmeg.

My husband is at the NFL AFC Championship game tonight (go Patriots!) I gave my ticket to his brother and stayed home to have a dinner I love and he hates: roasted mushroom sandwich. I put some sautéed kale and garlic in it along with an aged cheddar. I only host Super Bowl parties when the Patriots are in it. Looks like it's time to start planning the menu!

I will join in too. I have THREE freezers that could use some thinning out. Two on each of my refrigerators (my house has two full kitchens), and then a commercial freezer in the finished basement. I just defrosted my commercial freezer today and discovered, among other things, that I have 10 packages of different flavors of sausages! I took one out to thaw--it's a mango habanero chicken sausage. Once I figure out what I am doing with it, I'll post the results here. I also took out a capon, which I will cook next weekend.

It is very easy. I just toss the eggplant in seasoned flour, then beaten egg, then seasoned breadcrumbs, and bake on a silpat that's been slicked with a little olive oil for around 30 minutes at 375. You don't need to use very much oil at all. Some recent meals: braised short ribs with fried rice and braised bok choy Since I don't eat beef, I made myself a piece of yellowtail flounder with the same sides on that evening And then a couple of recipes from the most recent Fine Cooking magazine: Thai-style roasted napa cabbage and spicy chicken larb. The cabbage was excellent. The chicken was a little bland for my taste so I doctored it up with some extra samba oelek, palm sugar, and Thai basil.

This is a soup I made to take for lunch this week. It is from the most recent issue of Fine Cooking magazine. It has roasted jicama, carrots, and butternut squash, onions, roasted garlic, tomatoes, kale, quinoa, and cannellini beans.

A big salad Baked eggplant fries Fried chicken