liamsaunt

This week's fish share was flounder (and Faroe Island salmon, which is tomorrow's dinner). I made stewed Greek vegetables and roasted the flounder for a bit in white wine, topped with crunchy crumbs. This good dinner made Monday more tolerable :-)

Messy, cheesy meatball subs

I did a quick chicken and cavatelli soup the other night. I had roasted some chickens on Sunday and made the carcasses into stock. When I got home I defatted the stock and simmered it with some sage, carrots and celery. Cooked cavatelli in a separate pot and added that, with the leftover roast chicken and some parsley, plus lots of pepper. Easy and comforting on a cold night, and the leftovers were good for lunch the next day too

Yesterday's fish share was pollock. Pollock is my least favorite of all the fishes we get from the share, and we always get it at least once per 8-week cycle. I am always trying to think of really flavorful things to do with it to get past its bland flavor and watery texture. I went with a standby and made Thai style fish cakes. This worked well with the fish. This is my plate, my husband and brother in law each ate five, and probably would have had more if I had cooked more.

Sundays are always family meal. We usually alternate between my Mom's house and my house, but lately it has always been at my house since my brother in law is temporarily living with us and my Mom's house it smaller and does not have enough seats for the large group. I missed getting photos of the side dishes (cauliflower gratin, asparagus). Giant ham (the celebration ham from Wegman's I think meant for Easter). Ignore the horrible counter and dishwasher in the background. I have two kitchens and this one really needs a makeover. and some of it sliced roast chicken for the ones who don't eat ham (myself included) a random Greek salad (with bacon!!??) that my Dad asked me to make because he hates asparagus this week. He dictated all of the ingredients and the dressing recipe too. He took all the leftovers home so I guess he liked it :-) "party potatoes" from some Best American Recipes book. Very meh if you ask me All the ham and the bone went home with my parents and brother, and the chicken caracsses are simmering to make stock for the soup my husband and I will eat while snowbound tomorrow. My sister is bringing me some eggs in exchange for some of the soup (and not having to cook anything or clean up either haha). I like family meal Sundays.

breakfast quesadilla stuffed with eggs, cheddar, ro-tel tomatoes, and chiles

I went in a different direction from corned beef for St. Patrick's Day since I don't eat red meat. At my husband's request, I made a full Irish breakfast. My Mom heard about my plans and baked a loaf of soda bread and dropped it off in our kitchen while we were at work And here is the breakfast. I did make the traditional beans also but forgot to put them on the plate until after I took the picture and I did not want to take the time to do another photo.

Sorry, I just saw this now. The recipe is not my own. It is Andrea Nguyen's garlicky silky sausage from the Banh Mi Handbook. The recipe is available on google books. I can't link it here for some reason. The only change I made is that I could not find the tapioca starch called for, so I had to use the cornstarch she recommends as a substitute.

More goodies from my fish share for dinner last night: seared scallops on coconut-curry risotto

A couple of recent meals. A salad with grilled steak and haloumi, creamy cucumber dill dressing and some grilled pita bread. I grilled some chicken too since I dislike red meat but I guess I did not get a picture. And my fish share started up again yesterday, so last night we had monkfish roasted with mushrooms on mashed potatoes with spinach

Banh mi with grilled chicken, garlic sausage, edamame pate, and daikon-carrot pickle. All recipes from Andrea Nyguyen's Banh Mi Handbook

Egg sandwich with homemade garlic-black pepper chicken sausage. I actually made the sausage yesterday for banh mis that I am making for dinner tonight, but wanted to give it a test drive. Very good. In fact, I think I will make my own chicken sausage from now on instead of buying it.

Filipino rice porridge using stock and meat from the leftover turkey from Sunday. I am feeling a bit flu-ish and this is comfort food for me.

This is the only photo I got yesterday: roasted turkey. Sides were mashed potatoes, stuffing, cauliflower-gruyere gratin and green beans.

I did a soup bar for family dinner last night. Three kinds of soup. Corn and cheddar cheese chowder Black bean soup Vegetable tortellini soup Cornbread and soft pretzel sticks for dipping My favorite is the corn chowder, but the vegetable tortellini ended up being the most requested.

I have been meaning to try that recipe. I have it save in my NYTimes Cooking app. Glad to hear it was tasty. Maybe this week... Thursday I made pasta primavera, subbing in half zoodles for some of the pasta. Other veggies were broccoli and mushrooms. I should have added carrots too.

A riff on the pesto and egg sandwich @blue_dolphin posted in the breakfast thread the other day. I used pesto mayonnaise and added tomatoes

A ribollita of sorts with kale, cabbage, spinach, carrots, celery, white beans, garlic, tomatoes, and a spicy chicken sausage.

Still on vacation and have mostly been eating out but here is one dinner I made at the rental villa the other night. Grilled Caribbean lobster tail and mahi mahi with a mango salsa and some local salad greens.

My meals have been extremely disrupted this week thanks to commuter train problems. Tuesday our train stalled for over an hour. A mixed veggie stir fry became only bok choy with shrimp because I was so hungry when I got home. Brother in law started the rice cooker for me or we would not have had rice! Tonight was terrible. Could not even fit into the station. I ended up walking to my husband's office and we took a taxi home. One hour and 15 minutes later thanks to gridlock, and many dollars poorer, we were home. I live 12 miles from the city. Mass transit is so annoying when it goes wrong. I was mad. I made bucatini puttanesca with extra garlic and anchovies to reflect my mood On vacation as of tomorrow so my mind is already in a better place :-)

Had family over for dinner last night. I roasted three chickens. Here is one I did not have time to get photos of the rest of the meal, but there were potatoes mousseline, roasted carrots, green beans with almonds, and herbed gravy. I made stock from the carcasses, and the leftover chicken and gravy will be made into a soup for lunches this week. I did get a photo of dessert, blueberry pie a la mode:

Pizza and movie night. Alas, my name was not drawn from the jar, so I had to sit through another Batman movie. Revenge will be mine eventually. It's just a matter of which Merchant and Ivory film to choose... Pizzas were the usual flavors. Carbonara White clam Pepperoni vegetable

Gai lan with oyster sauce And a big platter of fried rice with chicken

I double checked the recipe and it did call for 2 tbsp. But then I looked in my other Batali cookbooks and found two other versions, one with 1 tbsp. sugar and 1 tbsp. salt, and the other only called for one tsp. salt! The bread was not overly salty, but it is possible I used less salt too. 2 tbsp. does seem like a lot.

Yes, I did make it. It's actually a Mario Batali recipe for pizza dough. He suggests that you cook the doughs on a cast iron griddle on both sides and then put on the toppings and run the pizza under the broiler to finish. This was a leftover precooked dough from the last time I made pizza. He says you can precook them and freeze, which is what I did with the one. His dough recipe is: 1 1/4 c. warm water 2 tsp. yeast 1.5 tsp sugar 3.5 c. flour 2 tbsp. kosher salt 1/4 cup olive oil combine water, sugar and yeast and let stand until foamy. Combine flour and salt in a stand mixer and add the liquid and the oil, and mix until smooth and elastic. Let rise until doubled in size and then punch it down and divide into eight pieces. Stretch out and cook both sides on a very hot cast iron griddle until dry and browned in spots, about 4 minutes total per dough.