Dinner 2015 (Part 1)

**Shelby** · March 20, 2015

You knew it had to be coming after all of the St. Pat's corned meats........

Venison reuben sandwiches

rane008 · March 20, 2015

getting down to the end of our greens... Had an interesting day today. which had me drinking vermouths, then a coffee tasting, then a beer tasting.. Ic could have had one more drink and went to bed for the rest of the night but, instead, i ran 5 miles, drank a ton of water and had a salad..

The greens consisted of little peppers, baby Shanghai spinach, baby arugula and baby mizuna, with anchovies and my buddy's caesar salad dressing.

chopsticks are the best way to eat a salad with baby lettuces.

YES! Chopsticks are the best way to eat salad! Thank you!

huiray · March 20, 2015

Yes, chopsticks ought to be considered more frequently (or fork and SPOON) when eating "fiddly" food, especially here in North America. As far back as a couple of decades ago, and even up to the present time,** I have asked some food establishments/restaurants if they might have a pair of chopsticks I might use for "fiddly dishes" and I have always (to date) been greeted with blank or uncomprehending stares. These were "Western-type" cuisine restaurants, on the whole, although they also encompassed some fusion-y Western-"Asian" type places, usually run under Western auspices. E/SE Asian establishments would not blink in the least at this, of course.

I suppose it would be a valid counter that many folks would not be proficient with chopsticks, and that is a fair argument.

With regards to the "fork and spoon" option (which is a normative option in Thailand and SE Asia and other places) I think it interesting that many folks in the Western Cuisine sphere still either look askance at it (if they consider it at all) or think of it not at all.

** ETA: This includes very high-end places where the food on the plates were most definitely composed with tweezers (including my observing them do so) yet I would be provided with a large clunky fork (and knife, which was useless in the extreme) to eat the composed plate with. But when I asked them for a suitable implement to eat these preciously-composed plates of food with, such as a pair of chopsticks - please - if they had it, they would look at me as if I had three heads.

Edited March 20, 2015 by huiray (log)

kayb · March 20, 2015

For months I have been hungry for okra, but the store never has any. Hungry so much that I bought okra seeds for my New Jersey balcony this summer.

Tonight the store had okra. Seems like an odd season for it. My heart was all a flutter till I looked carefully. The okra was limp and discolored. I could not find one piece worth buying. Sad.

But yours is beautiful and it cheered me up!

Edit: winter okra in Manitoba? Reminds me of Dr. Faustus.

Don't know about groceries where you are, but groceries here carry a frozen okra that is not breaded; just sliced and quick frozen. It doesn't have a brand name, in a plain clear bag with generic-looking black lettering on it, says it's fresh-packed in Georgia. I have found you can thaw that, toss it with cornmeal mix, salt and pepper and fry it, and it's doggoned near as good as fresh. Particularly in the middle of the winter when the only other option is that heavily breaded stuff, which I loathe.

suzilightning · March 20, 2015

Now I want more soup....especially pho. Made a crazy soup with stock, chicken and vegetable potstickers, rice noodles, egg and some veg last night.

Still snowing here though not as intensely cold as it has been. Got some beef and there is a pot of beef stroganoff going on the stove. I'll stop it about 15 minutes before done then, when John gets home, will reheat and finish with his faux sour cream. Egg noodles and some nice spring peas will finish the meal off.

Roasted two chicken breasts for sandwiches for the next two days and made a blueberry lemon coffee cake.

With any luck the snow will be gone and we will be able to clean out the 20+ bluebird boxes where John worked on Sunday ... BEFORE the birds decide to set up housekeeping.

scubadoo97 · March 20, 2015

Had a little corned beef flat that I rubbed with pastrami spice, smoked and steam finished

The little piece of point just had to be cut into

JoNorvelleWalker · March 20, 2015

Don't know about groceries where you are, but groceries here carry a frozen okra that is not breaded; just sliced and quick frozen. It doesn't have a brand name, in a plain clear bag with generic-looking black lettering on it, says it's fresh-packed in Georgia. I have found you can thaw that, toss it with cornmeal mix, salt and pepper and fry it, and it's doggoned near as good as fresh. Particularly in the middle of the winter when the only other option is that heavily breaded stuff, which I loathe.

I've looked for frozen okra and not been able to find it. Hopefully my okra seeds will germinate this summer.

BKEats · March 21, 2015

today had me going to bed at 12:30 am and waking up for the airport at 4:!5 am for a 6 am flight to Canada. I worked the day and was landing back at the airport at 645 pm tonight.. I arrived home around 720, shoveled snow for 25 minutes then, went off to buy groceries for dinner..

Dinner tonight was just for me and Miss k. I partially deboned a game hen, made rice and a salad.

pretty simple..

No time to brine or marinate, just a lot of salt, some pepper and a little olive oil

Arugula salad had lemon juice, salt, pepper, a squirt of olive oil and then rested the warm chicken over the greens for a bit. Poured a little juice from the cutting board.. basmati Rice consisted of garlic, olive oil, rice, sazon, then a pad of butter, a cup of rice, a shot of wine, two cups of water, a punch of salt, a squirt of tomato paste, some black pepper. Depending on the situation, i may add a shot of crema at the end.. Miss k likes when i do this.

game hen was $4.50, the rice and arugula were on hand. I spent another 50 or 60 cents on a the garlic. Home cooked meal in 22 minutes. i was super tempted to spend 40 or 50 bucks on food getting delivered. I am happy i didn't.

Edited March 21, 2015 by BKEats (log)

mgaretz · March 21, 2015

Had a little corned beef flat that I rubbed with pastrami spice, smoked and steam finished
The little piece of point just had to be cut into

Wow!

Thanks for the Crepes · March 21, 2015

I've looked for frozen okra and not been able to find it. Hopefully my okra seeds will germinate this summer.

I can sympathize. When we lived in Vermont in the 70's before the internet and Amazon, and when a lot of our stuff (including a saddle, clothing and kitchen ware) was ordered from the Sears and Roebuck catalog, our relatives in Louisiana put together southern care packages and mailed them to us.

I remember lots of grits, dried black-eyed peas and White Lily flour. There was no other way to get them.

**Shelby** · March 21, 2015

Nice corned beef, Scuba!

BK--I'm impressed. That was a long day and a great meal to top it off! I live in the boonies so it's hard to wrap my brain around being able to just run to the store a pick what you want to eat that night

I had just enough homemade rye bread to make a couple of sandwiches. So we had turkey on rye with vegetable soup. I used the leftover cabbage and beans from St. Pat's in the soup. Oh and we opened up a jar of pickles that I made over the summer. I really liked this batch. For some reason this jar is spicier.

liamsaunt · March 21, 2015

We have been eating a lot of eggs this week. Thursday I only had a few minutes to make dinner so threw together one of our favorite sandwiches: bacon, egg, avocado, tomato:

and last night I made cheddar souffles with a big salad

huiray · March 21, 2015

Stir-fried large Chinese mustard hearts (kai choy).

Pork spare ribs braised (stove top) w/ peanut oil, garlic, ginger, fermented chili bean curd plus the soaking liquid, pre-soaked wood-ear fungus & dried lily buds (kum chum; "golden needles"), bamboo shoots (pre-simmered separately in salted water), seasoning adjusted. Dressed w/ scallions, eaten w/ fresh Vietnamese-type rice noodles.

**Shelby** · March 21, 2015

We have been eating a lot of eggs this week. Thursday I only had a few minutes to make dinner so threw together one of our favorite sandwiches: bacon, egg, avocado, tomato:

belt.jpg

and last night I made cheddar souffles with a big salad

souffle.jpg

Now THAT is a sandwich!

rotuts · March 21, 2015

ditto ond the sand.

Ill have to keep that in mind

I always forget how good eggs are w tomatoes.

patrickamory · March 21, 2015

rotuts yes! eggs with tomatoes in sandwiches. The British introduced me to that.

rotuts · March 21, 2015

also dont forget the omelette, or scrambled eggs if you prefer !

ninagluck · March 21, 2015

I wanted to make sriracha pearls, but the base did not want to shape into pearls, so I got some sriracha strings. marinated cedri lemon, first rocket from the garden, scallops and prawns, finished with sriracha strings

Ranz · March 21, 2015

Zuni Chicken and creamed spinach, followed by a whipped cream dessert with nuts and berries.

Norm Matthews · March 22, 2015

I have been wanting to try a corned beef-to-pastrami recipe but didn't dare try it for the annual corned beef day dinner. Cassie likes it too much for me to mess with that day's dinner. The pastrami came out really well. There was practically nothing left over. Next time I think I'll try it in my smoker. This one was in heavy duty foil in a slow oven for 7 1/2 hours. With it we had store-bought pretzel buns, Irish Whiskey Butter, sweet potatoes and a salad with dried fruit and toasted nuts.

Edited March 22, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

BKEats · March 22, 2015

Love all the corned beef to pastrami conversions. It's still on my List of things to do these next couple of weeks. Tonight heated up a

Frozen chicken pie I bought from the Dutch market with an arugula Caesar salad with peppers and carrots. A nice glass of red wine from a 12 year old Tempranillo. Homemade banana bread with homemade dulce de leche ice cream while watching the Shining. had such an amazing day with my family today. I am just so thankful for them.

Edited March 22, 2015 by BKEats (log)

scubadoo97 · March 22, 2015

BKEats, homemade ice cream sounds great

This should get you jump stated on the pastrami

Was lunch today on good rye with Swiss and grilled

**Shelby** · March 22, 2015

BIIIIIIG basketball game today. Wichita State vs. KU. I love March Madness

My husband went to the Asian market and came home with a bunch of these guys. They were very lively. Kept Newman (the cat) entertained for hours. One of my favorite things to eat.