Dinner 2020

[TicTac]

Smoked ribs (Aaron Franklin style - aka just salt and pepper) with Slaw.  Pretty decent smoke ring for a 2.5h cook...

[liamsaunt]

Thai fish curry

 

[Duvel]

Getting very chilly in this part of Germany - hot soup to the rescue: pumpkin & pear cream soup with fried blood sausage slices ... 

 

[heidih]

4 minutes ago, Duvel said:

Getting very chilly in this part of Germany - hot soup to the rescue: pumpkin & pear cream soup with fried blood sausage slices ... 

 

The pumpkin does not overwhelm the pears? or they play nice? The blood sausage - nice contrast. 

[Duvel]

Just now, heidih said:

The pumpkin does not overwhelm the pears? or they play nice? The blood sausage - nice contrast. 

The pumpkin (and onion) was roasted as the base of the soup, the pear accentuated the sweetness nicely. I added some creme fraiche to get a bit of acidity and the blood sausage for umami. All in all a good combination. It went into my “keep” file 😉 

[weinoo]

On 11/23/2020 at 12:33 PM, rotuts said:

@weinoo 

 

your Rx  ?

 

please consider and share.

 

But of course, old @rotuts:

 

Mushroom Barley Soup

 

1 cup diced onion

1 cup diced celery

1 cup diced carrot

1 large leek, diced (or a shallot, or leave it out)

1 T minced garlic

1 bouquet garni 

 

15 g dried porcini, soaked in 2 cups water, strained, sliced up and save the water

1 lb. assorted mushrooms, sliced not that ceremoniously

1/2 - 3/4 c. pearled barley - this just keeps getting thicker and thicker after it sits, so the lesser amount is fine

1.5 quarts vegetable, mushroom, or chicken stock or a mix

 

Sweat (but don't use that term) the mirepoix. Add the mushrooms and sweat them too. Salt them too. Pepper them too.

 

Add the barley and stock (s) - bring to a boil and taste for salt now. Add more salt - the barley will soak it up. Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour and it should be done. Remove bouquet garni. Taste for salt and pepper. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[weinoo]

I made a quite inauthentic "Indian-style" curry last night. With stuff I had on hand and want to use before other stuff starts arriving tomorrow. So, baby artichokes (already cleaned and halved), whole cremini mushrooms, some of that chicken I roasted the night before (thigh and drumstick meat), a couple of pieces of Romanesco. And onions, garlic, ginger, tomato paste, tomatoes, cream, stock, assorted recently purchased spices, and whatever else I'm forgetting. Added the chicken only at the final moment before serving the stuff up.

 

 

Inauthentic? Yes, I'm quite sure. But really fucking delicious. However, the coup de grace was...

 

 

Perfect basmati rice, made (via my own hack) in the new rice cooker!

[heidih]

You tease! The "hack"?? I have not bought basmati ina while. The local used to include sealed container of saffron - like make-up lip balm container. Nice quality of threads.

[Toliver]

On 11/18/2020 at 3:51 PM, Shelby said:

I love orange cheese on tacos  

Yep. Orange cheese on tacos, on enchiladas, on pizza (when Mom didn't have any mozzarella), on burgers, etc.

The only white cheese my Mom knew about was either Monterey Jack or the afore-mentioned mozzarella.

You can't miss what you don't know you're missing. 

[rotuts]

melted , please.

 

 

so important.

[Kim Shook]

 

@patti – you are surely in my thoughts right now.  I hope you are feeling better soon. 

 

Such gorgeous food, y’all!  I want it all.  I want @Shelby's big sandwiches, @robirdstx's smothered pork, all those damn pizza’s and crusty breads, @Dejah's and @Shelby's pot pies, lovely rare steaks, LASAGNA, shit I can’t even identify!, scallops, @CantCookStillTry's charcuterie tray and pork, @patti's short ribs, etc., etc.  In my head I’m singing, “Don’t care how, I want it NOW!” from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory! 

 

Bless his heart.  Mr. Kim is doing his very best.  He’s working all the hours sent by God, trying to prep what he needs to for Thanksgiving, trying to help our daughter get her apartment really cleaned and tidied for an inspection by the complex management (she’s a complete slob – her living quarters and car look like they are owned by a hoarder, but she’s just a slob), his dad and stepmom’s basement started to flood in the heavy rains last week and THEY WENT ON VACATION, blithe in the knowledge that SOMEONE would handle things (I may end up killing these people).  So, most of the time he wasn’t working this week was spent at their house carting things out to a storage container.  The thing is I’m kinda starving and I can’t say a thing.  Not actually “hungry” you understand, it’s just that what I’m being given is not satisfying me.  I feel evil for saying that and would never, ever even hint at such a feeling.  So, I’m just venting to folks who will understand and will know that I’m actually being well taken care of (though he did speak of baked chicken with instant rice and cream of mushroom sauce the other night😳).  Here’s a few things that we’ve had:

 

Grilled cheese and Mrs. Fearnow’s Brunswick stew:

 

This is a locally produced, canned product and quite good. 

 

Another:

He made us lo mein noodles, snow peas, and shrimp.  This was pretty good.  Needed a little sauce is all.   

 

Frozen fish and chips and shredded sautéed Brussels sprouts (not pictured but very good):

The sprouts will appear again on Thanksgiving day, so this counted as practice.

 

Self explanatory:

 

Dinner picked up from a local favorite Greek place.  Tiropita:

 

That amazing Greek bread:

 

I got a sampler of Greek stuff:

Pastichio, dolmades, souvlaki, spanakopita, gyros, and tzatziki.  Mr. Kim got the baked spaghetti with meatballs:

 

Fingers crossed for tonight please – I got some salmon out of the freezer and am hoping I can stay upright in the kitchen long enough to supervise miso glazed salmon. 

 

Please excuse the crappy photos.  I’m eating in the family room now and the lighting is awful. 

 

 

[Captain]

A late dinner for us, so omlette did the trick.

Edited November 24, 2020 by Captain (log)

[mgaretz]

1 hour ago, Toliver said:

Yep. Orange cheese on tacos, on enchiladas, on pizza (when Mom didn't have any mozzarella), on burgers, etc.

The only white cheese my Mom knew about was either Monterey Jack or the afore-mentioned mozzarella.

You can't miss what you don't know you're missing. 

 

Cheddar is naturally white.  It's only orange because it's had coloring added (usually annatto).  Orange tastes the same as the white.

[Kim Shook]

16 minutes ago, mgaretz said:

 

Cheddar is naturally white.  It's only orange because it's had coloring added (usually annatto).  Orange tastes the same as the white.

Yep.  I still tell the story about trying to convince my four year old honorary niece this fact when we were eating in a Mexican restaurant once and she was refusing to eat their tacos.  She had only had her mom's before and was extremely suspicious of that white stuff.  She is now a HS teacher and completely understands the frustration of dealing with intransigent children.  This is the same child that accused me of eating COWS while I was eating a burger.  When I said that the hot dogs she was currently eating were also COW, she looked at me pityingly and informed me that they were the udders that fell off when the cows didn't need them anymore.  She is still the smartest and funniest young person I know.  

[Franci]

17 hours ago, heidih said:

@Franci Challenging! You have cooked for them before I take it.  How did you do the tofu? Are they fairly accepting of your efforts? Looking forward to how it progresses.

yes, I used to cook for them every Saturday when in Brooklyn :-). Tofu: I think I made this dish short time ago and shared the procedure in this thread. This time too much multitasking 😁 and came a little dry 😐

[Toliver]

1 hour ago, mgaretz said:

 

Cheddar is naturally white.  It's only orange because it's had coloring added (usually annatto).  Orange tastes the same as the white.

Yep. During college I worked at a Hickory Farms store in a nearby mall. I learned quite bit about white & orange cheeses working there.

Still don't understand how people can eat blue cheese (IT'S MOLD, PEOPLE!  ).

[heidih]

7 minutes ago, Toliver said:

Yep. During college I worked at a Hickory Farms store in a nearby mall. I learned quite bit about white & orange cheeses working there.

Still don't understand how people can eat blue cheese (IT'S MOLD, PEOPLE!  ).

 

You kid right on the tasty mold? No salami for you. A bit before my time - the WW2 era  capsule to be squeezed into margarine to ma it appear like butter. http://www.americainwwii.com/articles/victorys-spread/

Edited November 24, 2020 by heidih (log)

[Toliver]

2 minutes ago, heidih said:

 

You kid right on the tasty mold? No salami for you. A bit before my time - the WW2 era  capsule to be squeezed into margarine to ma it appear like butter. http://www.americainwwii.com/articles/victorys-spread/

Not kidding on the "tasty" mold  

When my mom was a kid, one of her jobs in the kitchen (helping her older sister who raised her) was to mix the yellow food coloring into the margarine. She was a margarine maven from then on. I eventually introduced butter into her original recipe Chex Mix and her Christmas cookies. My siblings were floored by the flavor difference between margarine and butter. 

Today, I have both butter and margarine in my kitchen and it depends on what I am cooking or eating as to which one I use.

[heidih]

20 minutes ago, Toliver said:

Not kidding on the "tasty" mold  

When my mom was a kid, one of her jobs in the kitchen (helping her older sister who raised her) was to mix the yellow food coloring into the margarine. She was a margarine maven from then on. I eventually introduced butter into her original recipe Chex Mix and her Christmas cookies. My siblings were floored by the flavor difference between margarine and butter. 

Today, I have both butter and margarine in my kitchen and it depends on what I am cooking or eating as to which one I use.

I just never told when I switched to butter - they just thought my skills improved over time, But yes I come from making laminated pastries with "Fluffo" (colored yellow v. Crisco which looks like lard.  http://moirashome.blogspot.com/2013/12/goodbye-crisco.html

 

Oh and Mike Wallace on the video!!!  Before fame...

Edited November 24, 2020 by heidih (log)

[TicTac]

 

 

 

Gnocchi 2 ways (because a half boiled half seared gnocchi is blasphemous!) 

 

Crispy gnocchi with extreme mushroom reduction, crisp pancetta, caramelized vidallia onions and fresh grated Parmesan - Boiled gnocchi with cherry tomato and garden basil.

 

 

RAS (random ass salad) - roasted and marinated peppers, hearts of palm, cucumber, shredded cabbage, cilantro - balsamic dressing 

  

Argentine white blend in the glass 

[pastameshugana]

2 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

I said that the hot dogs she was currently eating were also COW, she looked at me pityingly and informed me that they were the udders that fell off when the cows didn't need them anymore.  She is still the smartest and funniest young person I know.  

 

This sounds like so many conversations with my youngest. As the youngest of 5 he 'always' knows something about every conversation and feels the need to add his input.

[robirdstx]

 

Grilled Boneless Chicken Thigh, Stir Fried Vegetables and Jasmine Rice

[Margaret Pilgrim]

1 hour ago, TicTac said:

 

 

 

Gnocchi 2 ways (because a half boiled half seared gnocchi is blasphemous!)

 

Totally agree!    Gnocchi need to be properly cooked.  

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Onion soup

[patti]

@Kim Shook - Thank you! I was really scared that my knee issue was going to have me hobbling for a long time, but it’s already just a mild annoyance! 
 

Also, I’m impressed by a child who is willing to eat no longer needed cow udders! 😝 

 

Leftover short ribs. Even better tonight.