liamsaunt

I used to love to go to Wanamaker's as a kid! They had a train that went around the ceiling of the toy department that you could ride on while your parents went Christmas shopping. You could look out the windows for a birds-eye view of all the toys and decide what you wanted to ask for on your Christmas list that year. It was great. I don't remember the restaurant. I probably wasn't well-behaved enough to be allowed to eat there 🤣 Anyway, this restaurant sounds terrible. I do have some RH glass fronted bookcases in my home and they are very nice indeed, but I would not even think of going their store to eat. RH doesn't even sell kitchen furniture to my knowledge. Dining tables, yes, but not anything for the actual kitchen.

I think the Lundberg rice is sticker than other brands, even after rinsing and soaking. I will use it in a pinch, but it's definitely not my preferred brand. I buy my rice in big sacks since we eat so much of it. I stick it in my garage freezer for a while after buying it to freeze out any pantry moth eggs. I use Nishiki brand for short and medium grain rice and Swad for basmati rice. Last night, Ottolenghi's butternut squash lasagna pie and a kale salad with toasted almonds, dried cranberries, and Boursin cheese.

Mutter paneer, maharajah rice and naan

Dinner when I don't feel like cooking dinner: a wedge of brie, a hunk of bread, and a salad with fruit

Miso salmon, black rice with ginger dressing, and harukei turnips, daikon radishes, watermelon radishes, turnip greens, and bok choy tossed in miso butter.

They are just shiitake mushrooms, torn and tossed with sesame seeds, chili flakes, shallots, a little melted butter, and a splash of soy sauce, then roasted at 425 until crispy on the edges--maybe 20 minutes? Some garlic would have been good too, but I had already made a very garlicky broth for the noodles, so I left it out. No, they are six-minute eggs (medium size), peeled and then soaked in low-sodium soy sauce for a little while before dinner. Last night, hake roasted with bell peppers, olives, and capers, topped with a parsley vinaigrette and served with crispy mustard potatoes and garlicky spinach.

Last night my husband had to go to a football game for work, so my sister, niece and I had "clear out the bits and bobs in the fridge" miso ramen bowls. I used a bunch of collard greens and some carrots from my CSA for vegetables along with the usual ginger, garlic, chiles, cilantro etc. My niece had hers with a leftover pork chop from her dinner the other night: and my sister and I had ours with crispy sesame mushrooms (mushrooms also from the CSA)

Sear roasted double lamb chops over roasted mini gnocchi, wild mushrooms, and spinach.

Here is this week's delivery. In the front, the short ribs and mashed potatoes are in a large container because my brother and father both plan to eat this meal together tomorrow. The middle left is basically the same chicken meal I posted in the dinner thread on Friday. The middle center is another serving (frozen) of the Guinness beef stew I made last week. He'll have that with some more of the bread I made and sent over last week. The right middle is the bratwurst meal I made for us last night, but with spaetzle and spinach instead of potato pancakes. He already has some of my applesauce in his fridge. The back row is a bag of spicy turkey meatballs portioned, vacuum sealed, and frozen (no sauce, because there is still some sauce my Mom made in his freezer, and he prefers her recipe to mine), plus purchased ciabatta rolls (for meatball sandwiches) and cranberry bread (for breakfast) from a local bakery that he likes. The salads for this week did not make it into the picture, other than the Greek salad that goes with the chicken meal.

Bratwurst and sauerkraut, potato pancakes and applesauce.

Chicken and red onions marinated in yogurt, garlic, and lemon, served with tzatziki sauce, rice pilaf, salad, and flatbread

Last night we tried a new recipe from the NY Times cooking section; roasted cauliflower with sweet chermoula and yogurt. roasted cauliflower with sweet chermoula I served it with flatbreads that I made. The reception was mixed. My niece said she liked it, but did not eat much of it (translation: she disliked it but did not want to tell me), my sister said the flavors were good but the room-temperature yogurt made the dish too cool on a chilly day. My husband enjoyed it but thought it needed something like roasted lamb to go with it 🤣

Crispy lemongrass salmon from Andrea Nguyen's cookbook Vietnamese Food Every Day. Served with rice, pickled purple radishes and carrots, shaved cucumbers, chopped peanuts, herbs, and savoy cabbage, all dressed with nuoc cham.

I have different containers for different types of meals. Like FauxPas, I have some of those three-section containers with lids. I use those for meals that have separate components that can be entirely microwaved. For meals that taste best reheated in the oven/toaster oven, I have individual serving-size ceramic dishes that are freezer and ovenproof, as well as foil containers with disposable foil-lined paper lids that can have their contents written on them (lids discarded before reheating of course). Finally, I have different sizes of leakproof plastic containers with lids for saucy stuff. For noodle dishes like the stroganoff, I usually cook and package the noodles separately, and then my brother puts them on a plate, tops them with the saucy element, and reheats the meal in the microwave. The pork was sent over in a three-section container, and I assume microwaved like that. My brother does replate everything on regular dishes with real silverware to make it seem like a "normal "meal for my Dad. For the salads, I have two sets of different sizes of lidded round plastic bowls and a set of small Tupperware containers for their dressings. My brother washes all of the Tupperware and ceramic and returns them to me once a week. I should mention that we only live 15-20 minutes away from each other, so frequent drop-offs of food and dishes are feasible for us.

I have been batch cooking in recent weeks because my Mom is in the hospital and my Dad is mobility and memory impaired and cannot really cook for himself. I am expecting this to continue for a while longer--until my Mom gets discharged, out of inpatient physical therapy rehab, and is strong enough to start cooking again. My brother is living with them and working from home, but he does not have time to cook from scratch during the day when my Dad likes to eat dinner, so I've been making meals in batches and bringing them over for my brother to heat up when my Dad is ready to eat. This week I made batches of Guinness beef stew, chicken enchiladas, homemade pizza sliced and stored in individual portions, and chicken pot pie. I generally bring two servings of each meal over to my Dad's house and then keep the remaining servings in my garage freezer to rotate back into later weeks. I bring over more food if I am going to be away for some reason, but try not to clog up their freezer too much since I have the space to store stuff here. Other popular meals so far have been saag paneer with rice and naan, chicken curry, beef stroganoff with egg noodles, mustard glazed pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes and green beans, penne with homemade meatballs and marinara sauce, chicken and vegetable stew, and vegetable lasagna. My Dad also eats a salad every weeknight, so I make a couple of different ones of those for him and package them in five containers with dressing on the side for Monday delivery to his refrigerator. This has been going on for seven weeks now with no end in sight. My brother cooks for him on the weekends (and he makes his own food for the week then too, as is his preference due to his dietary restrictions, which are too many to list). I'll be watching this thread for new ideas, and will post some pictures of my packing materials and completed meals once I do the next batch of food.

Crispy chicken with a big salad on top.

Coconut salmon curry with bok choy and rice

We were seated on the lower level. It was completely packed so they are still doing quite well. Finally back home for dinner last night: cascatelli with roasted winter squash-sage sauce and bacon.

Last night’s dinner was at Bond St. We had reservations in the lounge and it was daaaaark. Some stuff we ordered was too dark to even attempt photoing. Menu cocktail of some kind Big eye tuna tarts tuna crispy rice crab stuffed squash blossoms mushroom donabe assorted sushi My niece ordered bread pudding for dessert Her college tour is over and she is heading home today with my sister. I am staying one more night and then going home before my husband attends a work conference here for the rest of the week. Not sure what dinner tonight will bring. Probably not sushi haha

That is why we are here! Thanks for the recommendation. She liked the school so I will keep that in mind for future visits if she decides to transfer. Last night we went to Craft. We slightly over ordered, and it was dark… mushroom risotto Burrata with plums for the niece. I did not get any. Chitarra with clams short ribs for my niece olive oil poached halibut scallops tuna with fennel We also had aligot, sautéed greens, and some mushroom dish the server recommended for sides. We probably should have ordered one less side and one less fish. Everything tasted good and was perfectly seasoned but was uniformly not hot enough. It was very strange. Niece wanted the sugared donuts with caramel and chocolate sauces for dessert. Nobody else could manage any but she finished them off. If only we all had 21 year old stomachs again.

Dinner at Sushi of Gari 46 NYC. I’m in NYC for a couple of days for a college tour with my niece. Maitake tempura kabocha tempura Maguro avocafo aji, shima aji, age kaki, and a tamago for my niece tuna of Gari (we had a couple of these) Followed by Almost Famous. I am not a Broadway musical fan but this one was fun.

Wild mushroom flatbread

Chicken, bok choy, summer squash, red onion, and pea shoot stir fry with scallions.

Yesterday dawned as another day without butter for our toast. So, we decided to head back to Aqua Terra for breakfast again. Pretty views of the hotel: My niece ordered a Belgian waffle Sister had pancakes Husband chose a smoked salmon plate And I ordered a mushroom, onion and cheese omelet with wheat toast. Here is my very sad plate. Very overcooked eggs, dry toast, and no cheese in my omelet. I should have sent it back but I was really hungry so I just ate it. Oh well. The setting is very pretty. I keep meaning to stay at this hotel and then we never do. We spent the day at the beach in front of the house. You have seen it before. Dinner was at Aurora. Here's the view. looking over the pool and harbor to Hamilton. Drinks The menu It was really hard to choose what to order, because so many things sounded good! We shared a couple of appetizers. The passion fruit seveche (delicious) Tuna tartare and the stir fried calamari For mains, my niece ordered a salmon poke bowl I chose the tandoori halibut My sister had the monkfish curry and my husband had the lobster linguini We ordered dessert The sky opened up and it started pouring before the desserts came, so we had to move inside. That was fine--the restaurant actually had corresponding tables inside for every outdoor table just in case this happened! You just proceeded to the indoor table with your outdoor table's number on it. I thought that was pretty clever. Niece ordered the chocolate souffle I chose the mango brûlée, which I shared of course and sister had the Bailey's cake. We are headed home today, so this probably concludes our dining adventures for this trip (unless we get stuck for some reason). As always, here's the oddest book I found in our rental house And a nighttime view of the beach we stayed on. Until next time!

Essentially, it is my niece's weekend--we are going to NYC so she can tour a college she is applying to transfer to. Somehow the weekend has morphed into an entire trip of things that she likes best--bookstores, sushi restaurants, and Broadway shows. I'm not too thrilled about the whole thing (other than the bookstores, ha), because I am not a big fan of musicals, and more importantly, I don't think she is going to end up deciding to transfer there, so I have not been paying attention to what the dinners are, frankly. I just know they are all sushi places. We spent the day at the beach in front of the house. And then for dinner, my husband wanted to return to Sea Breeze at the Elbow Beach complex. We ate there a couple of times this summer. View from our table: Menu (I forgot to take a picture of the sushi menu) Drinks My niece ordered a torched salmon maki roll for her appetizer My husband and I shared a Thai seafood salad. I really liked this. It had some heat to it. and we also ordered some fried calamari for the table For mains, my niece got the same truffled carbonara she had over the summer My sister chose a special offering of pasta with clams and fried zucchini My husband got a special of grilled lobster and I chose the Goan king prawns The sun went down as we were eating. We were not facing the sunset, but the sky turned a lovely shade of pink My niece got a creme brûlée with berries for dessert and the rest of us shared a warm apple galette. We swapped in vanilla ice cream for the rum raisin ice cream that it came with because rum raisin ice cream is a crime