liamsaunt

Chicken shawarma

Niece chose the menu last night: teriyaki salmon with pineapple fried rice

The other night, spaghetti with olives and arugula Last night, gingered butternut squash soup with spicy pecan whipped cream. The recipe was in Food and Wine magazine a while ago. Unfortunately the whipped cream mostly melted before I remembered to take a picture.

Seared scallops over spinach risotto with what I thought was chopped pistachios but turned out to be a mix of chopped pistachios and toasted sesame seeds. My fault for putting an unmarked ziploc of chopped nuts leftover from another recipe in my nut storage area, and for not looking closely at what I had. It was a somewhat annoying surprise at the dinner table.

Miso salmon ramen soup bowls with king oyster mushrooms and lots of scallions and cilantro

eggplant rollatini with salad and garlic ciabatta

Thanks to @Kerry Beal and @rotuts for the sous vide advice. It worked out very well! The meat stayed just as pink as it was on Christmas evening. Everyone was very happy with it. I took a picture before it went in to the sous vide and after I sliced it. Unfortunately, the post cook slice came out really blurry. Here it is before going in to the water bath. It looked pretty much the same after heating once it was sliced. I should have taken the advice to slice it before heating it. I will do that next time. I did get a picture of my (meatless) dinner plate, which was basically the sides to the beef. Mashed potatoes, roasted assorted small beets, torn and roasted wild mushrooms, and purple carrots

This is not what we had for dinner, but what will be for dinner tonight. I have a question. I have 54 ounces of leftover prime rib roast from Christmas dinner that I want to serve to the meat eaters tonight. It is off the bone, in one piece, and was cooked to the rarer side of medium rare. I want to keep it at about that same level of doneness. Can I sous vide it and get that result? I have a sous vide but basically never use it. If it will work how long will it take to reheat? Or would you suggest another way. Any advice from more experienced meat cooks than me would be greatly appreciated!

I let my niece choose the menu last night, and since her brother was going out to eat with friends she chose a meal that he dislikes: chicken katzu, smashed cucumbers and rice.

I got a couple of cooking related things for Christmas gifts. My husband gave me an Ooni. I have been wanting one for years, so I am excited to figure it out. It's the Ooni Karu 16. I am sure many pizzas will be burned on the learning curve, and it's about to be too cold to do anything outside, but maybe by next summer I will be cranking out some nice pizzas.

potato soup

Some pre-Christmas meals. Chicken curry Bay scallop spaghetti Fish and chips

Spicy noodles with roasted broccoli and soy sauce egg

Butternut squash soup thickened with tortilla chips. My niece calls it nacho soup.

Matar paneer

Bucatini with tomato sauce and a chicken meatball stuffed with mozzarella cheese.

Moroccan spiced carrot and chickpea stew over couscous with pistachios and pomegranate seeds for crunch.

I will eat almost any of them if I have to, but prefer to avoid swiss chard (t tastes like mud) and kohlrabi (bland). I actively dislike dandelion greens but would eat them if there was no avoiding it. All the others are delicious to me! Last night, a variation on zuppa toscana

It's not worth fighting about it with him. I grew up with a brother who refused to eat any vegetables. At all. He is 44 now and still does not eat any vegetables or fruits other than potatoes, small amounts of onion, garlic, and herbs, plus the occasional carrot slice and small amounts of smooth (never chunky) tomato sauce. I saw my parents try everything with him and nothing worked. He was a horrible eater from birth. Sometimes you just have to let people do what they are going to do. It's super easy and fast too. I would cut back a bit on the sugar next time, but I do think it needs a little bit in there. And I would double the broccoli 😀 Last night we had roasted haddock with sweet peppers, olives and capers with chimichurri sauce on top, with some spinach and rice. Nephew opted for some of his Sunday gravy that he made over the weekend instead. Fine with me, it left more veggies for the rest of us.

My nephew's been feeling under the weather (goes along with teaching a classroom full of kids at this time of year I think), so I've been making stuff to appeal to him this week. Last night we had Maangchi's fire chicken I added broccoli to it. Nephew liked it. He said I should have doubled the chicken and halved the broccoli. I felt exactly the opposite 😂

Roasted cauliflower in a Thai flavored winter squash and coconut sauce, with rice.

A couple of recent "I really need to go food shopping" dinners. Rigatoni with turkey meatball (the sauce and meatballs are homemade but from my freezer) Pea risotto

Christmas is going to be just immediate family this year. I'm just not sure of the dinner location just yet. My Dad really wants the dinner to be at my house so he can see all the decorations. I hope it works out because it's much easier to cook and eat here, but he hasn't actually managed to get over here for a meal for a few years. If weather or how he is feeling prevents him leaving the house, I'll be packing everything up and bringing it all to his house (cooking at his house is not an option). He has multiple serious health and mobility issues, so it's going to be a game day decision. My husband ordered a three bone rib eye roast from Snake River Farms for the main. That's already here and stored in my garage freezer. I don't mind cooking that, but my sister and I don't eat red meat, so we have to consult on an alternate main course. Sides are still TBD. It will all work out. It always does.

Spaghetti with pesto, grape tomatoes and spinach Farro with roasted shredded brussels sprouts, arugula, cranberries, and pistachios, topped with roasted delicata squash and spicy chicken

I had way too many carrots from my weekly CSA delivery piling up, so I decided to make something that would use as many of them as possible. I chose a dish from Food and Wine magazine for savory carrot mochi. Recipe here: savory carrot mochi with pistachio dukkah I made carrot juice in the Vitamix for the recipe, which used up even more carrots. I did make the pickled carrots that the recipe called for too, but decided to save them for something else, and instead served the mochi on a carrot puree flavored with cardamom, with additional roasted carrots on top. My meat-loving nephew was rather unimpressed with dinner, but the rest of us thought it was pretty terrific. I did not manage to use up all of the carrots in the crisper drawer, but I have it down to a reasonable amount now (until the next delivery)