Dinner 2025

[liamsaunt]

Stir fried chicken, broccoli and peppers  in a sweet and spicy sauce with rice

 

[rotuts]

Ive been working w ground turkey, which I enjoy .

 

l thought id also add broccoli and carrots , veg Ive enjoyed in the past .

 

pressure steaming in the iPot is easy , and gives me veg to work with cooked.

 

so , I tried carrots , PS  4 minutes , quick release .  times mentioned several places in the WWW

 

I used pre-pealed , not really baby.  the cooled in cold water .  the surface 1/2 seemed over cooked , the rest not so much.

 

I mashed the results to even things out.  I added a bit of Tj's sweet chili sauce.  

 

broccoli was 4 minutes , micro .  three turned out better :

 

Mise

 

 

the broccoli is raw , upper L  the carrots , cooked , refrigerated , R

 

red table wine , w demi , L bottom

 

cooked the ' slice ' of ground turkey , in the usual fashion , deglazed w the wine ( warmed up ) and butter

 

day one :

 

 

broccoli over cooked , 4 min micro steamed  carrots decent , but wet

 

day 2 

 

 

B  3 min, much better .  carrots , still a little wet , but not so much.  dry roasted pecans on the carrots.  forgot to put the butter in

 

the deglaze , off the heat of course , so it went on the turkey.

 

decent meal , but broccoli and carrots need a little work

 

 

[gfweb]

@rotuts Do you ever roast broccoli?

[rotuts]

@gfweb

 

not yet.  B abd C , both roasted would be nice .

 

start w the C , then add the B  so both get done at rhw same time might be nice.

[YvetteMT]

26 minutes ago, gfweb said:

@rotuts Do you ever roast broccoli?

Roasted with a light char is perfect in this house. 

[gfweb]

2 hours ago, rotuts said:

@gfweb

 

not yet.  B abd C , both roasted would be nice .

 

start w the C , then add the B  so both get done at rhw same time might be nice.

i usually blanch the broc first...then 375 for 10 or 15 min.  i'll split the florettes and roast cut side down in a little oil

[Smithy]

3 hours ago, gfweb said:

i usually blanch the broc first...then 375 for 10 or 15 min.  i'll split the florettes and roast cut side down in a little oil

I haven't tried blanching the broccoli, but I agree that a bit of olive oil and then roasting is good. I do that with cauliflower and slices of ripe bell pepper too. I'll try blanching the broccoli first next time around. Thanks for the pointer.

[Neely]

Vegetable stew of eggplant, yellow pepper, red onion and tomatoes. Fried gnocchi and a beef patty. 
 

[Maison Rustique]

12 hours ago, gfweb said:

@rotuts Do you ever roast broccoli?

 

I can't think of many veggies I wouldn't roast. I love them nicely browned with crispy edges.

[Maison Rustique]

I baked a potato a few days ago and didn't use it, so last night I fried some bacon, then I took the potato and smooshed it in the pan with bacon grease and butter. I let it get nice and browned. Then I topped it with a tiny bit of cheese, sour cream, onion and bacon. Very tasty!

 

And I thought I had a couple of other photos of it in process and finished, but they seem to have gone missing.

 

 

[TdeV]

On 10/21/2025 at 5:54 PM, C. sapidus said:

Mrs. C made a roasted carrot dip with zaatar and pistachios, enjoyed with pita chips

 

 

This dish intrigues me (and looks delish).

Would you please ask Mrs. C for the recipe for this?

[liamsaunt]

Pizza night. Carbonara

 

 

Mushroom

 

[C. sapidus]

4 hours ago, TdeV said:

 

This dish intrigues me (and looks delish).

Would you please ask Mrs. C for the recipe for this?

 

She says she based it on this recipe: Za'atar roasted carrot dip - Serious Eats (clicky)

[Maison Rustique]

Tonight was a grilled Brie and bacon on Izzio Bakery Fig and Honey bread that I got at Sprouts a few days ago.

 

[MaryIsobel]

1 hour ago, Maison Rustique said:

Tonight was a grilled Brie and bacon on Izzio Bakery Fig and Honey bread that I got at Sprouts a few days ago.

 

Fig and honey bread sounds fabulous!

[Duvel]

Pica pica (the Catalan version of tapas) …

 

 

Everything from the fridge/freezer/cans, so just some deep frying and heating up to do:

Jamon, chorizo, longaniza with cheese (bread not pictured), croquetes (jamon, chicken, salted cod), salmon pâtè, olives, meatballs in tomato sauce, shrimps with garlic & parsley, berberechos (cockles), goat cheese, fried chorizo.

 

Enjoyed with the classic Blackbeards Ghost and a glass of red …

 

No complaints 🤗

 

 

 

 

[CantCookStillTry]

You can take the girl to fancy town but you can't make her fit in 😂. 

 

 

Special fried rice, satay chicken, rainbow beef, sweet and sour chicken and deep fried snackies. 

Photo taken after the child attacked. 

 

 

I'd rather stand in the rain for an uber eats outside a fancy hotel than go for a sit down meal. I can't get takeaway delivery at home, let alone a Chinese (ish)! This is luxury ! 

 

[weinoo]

Two nights ago:

 

 

Started with perfect Manhattans.

 

 

This became penne with assorted mushrooms ( a la Marcella).

 

Last night:

 

 

 

A great version of Chicken Scarpariello, using Kenji's method of finishing the dish in the oven, uncovered, for 30 minutes.  The chicken cooks through, while the skin becomes nice and crisp, as it cooks above the liquid below. 

 

A couple of caveats to Kenji's method:

 

1.  There's no way this is a quick, easy, Tuesday night meal.  I actually used chicken thighs which I had cut in half, salted, and rested in the refrigerator over 2 nights. Sure, you don't have to do that part, but it makes the dish measurably better.

 

2.  There's no way I'd use 8 hot cherry peppers. The cherry peppers I get are really hot; 8 would make the dish inedible, in my opinion.  Although I suppose you could use sweet cherry peppers, for a different version.

 

Otherwise, go to town.

 

[Ddanno]

I thought I'd try pig's trotters - 2 quid for two, what could go wrong?

 

After a 3 hour soak in cold water, a 5 minute blanch, a scrub, another 5 minute blanch in fresh water followed by 90minutes in the Instant Pot with star anise, clove, ground fennel seed, garlic, ginger and soy they still came out stinking of the farmyard and were promptly abandoned.

 

It's duck for me tonight.

 

 

[rotuts]

@Ddanno

 

these were not smoked ?    ' fresh ? '

 

what did they smell like initially ?

[Ddanno]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

@Ddanno

 

these were not smoked ?    ' fresh ? '

 

what did they smell like initially ?

 

They were fresh yes and well within the use by date. They smelt a bit farmyardy coming out of the package, but cooking them seemed to really enhance that element in spite of a thorough clean and blanch.

 

Coupled with a very sparse amount of meat and a bit too much jellied cartilage and skin for my palate and I rather lost my appetite.

Edited 4 hours ago by Ddanno (log)

[Okanagancook]

A valiant effort.  I only use pigs feet for one recipe…… trotter spring rolls which are phenomenal.  So unctuous.  From Michel Richard (RIP) .But those feet…so much work to get the little bones separated from the fat and cartilage.  The asian flavours in the springs rolls mask any barnyard odors.  They are a rainy Sunday afternoon project.

[rotuts]

well, a surprise .

 

we will have to wait and see what @Duvel says about pigs feet.

[Ddanno]

16 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

A valiant effort.  I only use pigs feet for one recipe…… trotter spring rolls which are phenomenal.  So unctuous.  From Michel Richard (RIP) .But those feet…so much work to get the little bones separated from the fat and cartilage.  The asian flavours in the springs rolls mask any barnyard odors.  They are a rainy Sunday afternoon project.

 

I think I'll leave them to the professionals in future. I had Kauffman's stuffed trotter many moons ago but I lack the skill and knives to debone one myself

[Duvel]

2 hours ago, Ddanno said:

I thought I'd try pig's trotters - 2 quid for two, what could go wrong?

 

After a 3 hour soak in cold water, a 5 minute blanch, a scrub, another 5 minute blanch in fresh water followed by 90minutes in the Instant Pot with star anise, clove, ground fennel seed, garlic, ginger and soy they still came out stinking of the farmyard and were promptly abandoned.

 

It's duck for me tonight.

 

 

Most likely they were off to begin with. Yes, trotter do have a certain smell, but soaking (in salted water) and blanching has always given me a product to work with.

 

Try maybe a proven recipe with oroper seasoning next time, maybe with a fresh batch. I’d highly recommend Fergus Hendersons trotter gear (a somewhat 1:1 copy of the recipe can be found at Serious Eats).

 

Good luck !