Lunch 2025

[OlyveOyl]

Lentil soup with carrots, tomatoes, spinach, onions, garlic, topped with freshly grated Parmesan.

Mini caramelized apple tart.

[Neely]

Soup again… we love soup. 
This time with different mushrooms.

Enokitake plus shiitake mushrooms, chicken, coriander, chilli, lemon grass, Vietnamese mint… love an Asian broth soup. 

The Vietnamese mint is growing like mad in the garden but not so the Vietnamese basil nor the sweet basil. 

[OlyveOyl]

A velvety mushroom soup , creminis and dried porcini , I added dry Marsala rather than sherry .(Bourdain) 

Endive, fennel, pear, walnut salad with an anchovy vinaigrette.

Chocolate mousse with crushed peppermint candy.

[blue_dolphin]

Mussels and orzo in a coconut and saffron stew from Mezcla by Ixta Belfrage.

I loved this and will absolutely make it again. I used Thai bird chiles instead of Scotch bonnet and red bell pepper instead of yellow. The Calabrian chile paste was a great addition. 

[liuzhou]

Clams with fermented black beans and chilli. Finger food served with a baguette for juice  dipping purposes.

 

 

 

 

Edited 17 hours ago by liuzhou (log)

[blue_dolphin]

Stewy harissa chickpeas with winter squash from Good Things by Samin Nosrat.  The recipe is also available online here. 

The sweetness of the squash, warm harissa and spices, earthy beans and bright sherry vinegar and lemon come together perfectly in this recipe and with very little effort. I used honeynut squash cut in wedges since they were so small and used Rancho Gordo Royal Coronas instead of chickpeas as I had some ready to go. I unintentionally omitted the olive oil added with the stock and didn’t miss it. 
Per the serving suggestions, I added a few cubes of the marinated feta, also from the book but it wasn’t really necessary and with all the flavors in the stew, I didn’t really taste the marinade.

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by blue_dolphin (log)

[Smithy]

Nothing exotic about this, but it's a celebratory sandwich after my oven has finally (finally!) been repaired! One of the heating elements wasn't working, then a circulation fan needed to be replaced. It's taken 3-1/2 months of wrong or broken parts being shipped from the supplier, and at least 4 repair visits, but it's fixed!

 

Meanwhile, back at the sandwich board, I have a lot of breads, cheeses and meats to use up from a party where folks didn't eat as much as I'd expected. Hence today's offering: (overtoasted) brioche bun, slices of ham, salami, cheddar and pepper jack cheese, lettuce after the cheese was melted. Mayo and mustard on both interior layers.

 

 

Oh, and I managed to palm off some of this Danish Kringle on the repairman, who'd never heard of it and was delighted to try some. He was so delighted that I sent him away with more.