pastameshugana

Paul - looks amazing! Tonight is night #2 with most of the family gone, just me and #3 (my oldest daughter) at home. She's cooking for me. Tonight was a mediterranean-style rice pilaf with chicken, so I decided it was high time to teach her how to make challah. Any good Jewish girl should know this (even if she's only 1/8th or so, unless she's recently skinned her knee). I assumed (incorrectly) that the 15yo fashonista could to a better 6-stranded braid than I could. So now it looks like I'll be hairstyle assistant for the foreseeable future. The bread turned out fantastic, great crust and flavor.

Mrs M and most of the kids are out of town for a few days, I’m home with my oldest daughter (3rd oldest child) and she’s made it her mission to feed me, so I’m not allowed to cook. She’s 15 and I think yesterday spent nearly $200 on groceries to feed the two of us for four days....there will be leftovers. Tonight she made pizza: Half is Margherita, the other half features red onion and salami. She also made a honey balsamic reduction drizzled on top.

Tonight I grilled steaks (in the rain!) and Mrs Meshugana made a purée of cauliflower and broccoli with garlic, and a red chard side with baby bella and onion.

Looks incredible! We got hooked on zaatar on a long ago visit to Jerusalem.

At least locally, they also retired the green sauce. For shame.

Very cool. Now I've got some reading to go and do! I was going to say: 65 years is a serious achievement!

Do I spy an anniversary celebration?

LOL

Tonight for guests I made a traditional Alfredo. The plan was for fresh fettuccine but I lost so much time on the dessert I had to settle for dried pasta. It was still amazing and so good we never got around to getting a picture. For dessert, blueberry balsamic ravioli with mint and ricotta, with a lemon glaze. The leftover filling Mrs Meshugana made into a crumble. Both were absolutely incredible. Next time I think I will try deep frying the ravioli and making a lemon dipping sauce.

Can you elaborate on the cherry dumplings?

Butter, sage and pancetta sounds incredible! I’m planning some fresh pasta for tomorrow for guests, and that sounds like a lovely option.

That BA video was incredible. The anolini looked divine.

Welcome!

Greetings and welcome! I manage to get to Russia about once a year, usually Vologda, and @eugenep is right, there isn't enough information stateside about Russian cuisine.

Mrs Meshugana made her well-loved Korean Beef with Ramen Eggs. Home made quick-pickled cabbage, green onion and cilantro as garnish.

When we lived in India, it was easy to buy garlic & ginger paste if you were a cheater, but no dish seemed to start without it. My office was the floor above a great restaurant, and you could always smell the start up: Hot oil, then the blast of sautéing garlic & ginger paste. Glory.

Must've gotten lost in the mail. Although, NJ is a long ways away, even in 'pre-pandemic' travel hours...

Mrs Meshugana was making meatloaf a couple nights ago, so I offered to smoke it. Truly loving my Green Mountain Grills pellet smoker with WiFi control... Dinner was outstanding. She made gravy with the drippings. For lunch the next day, sliced and fried the meatloaf in butter and made open faced sandwiches. Btw - it feels good to be back!

Thanks so much for all the great tips - we've already bookmarked several of them and are putting an itinerary together. Our last anniversary was in NYC, and still get wistful talking about it.

My wife and I will be headed to New Orleans for a few days to celebrate our anniversary in a couple of weeks. I've loved all the 'creole' and 'cajun' food I've ever had, but it's always been somewhere that it's non-native. We are street food and casual food lovers, we like to eat lots of different, small things. What are some specific dishes we must try in NO, and maybe some 'can't miss' hot spots we should aim for?

What a peach. Sounds like a wonderfully happy, encouraging person to be around. Processed sugar leads to death. And it tastes great. Yummy, yummy death. I've got 5 mini-meshugana's, so by the time they're done trick or treating, I've got enough loot to start a confectionery. If I don't eat it all first and go into a delightfully yummy sugar coma.

Mine is used primarily to heat some milk in a mug while my Saeco super automatic pounds out a couple shots of RedBird espresso. They take almost identical amounts of time, so I've got a double latte in 60 seconds. Which reminds me...I could use a cup right about now.

Dang - after catching up on this thread after a few years absence, I just ctrl-t'd over to amazon.com to order some new bread pans. And I'll definitely be resurrecting my challah for next week's family get together!

I can't answer all of your questions, but having lived in Bangalore for a couple of years, I'll add a little: One of the things that boggled my mind about all of the south indian cookery I saw first hand (restaurants, street vendors, and our house maid) was the number of ingredients in most dishes. I've noticed back in the US that most sub-par Indian food tastes 'simplified' or 'generic'. To do it right it seems (to me, at least) to require all of those individual textures and nuances. The curd is common in cooking any kind of meat in India (or much of the east, actually). I've been told that it tenderizes the meat, helps the flavors to penetrate - I don't know what the truth is but I still do it because it certainly tastes nice. Hope this gets you a step or two closer to your answers...

Thank you so much for the tips - that gives me something to look into. My budget # of 100-150 was before tip & tax - not a hard limit just something to set the range. Also, neither of us drink alcohol, so that saves (quite) a few pennies at dinner time. Thanks again. Gramercy and Contra both intrigue me, for different reasons.... decisions, decisions...