What's For Dinner - Part 2

[toejamflipflop]

Tonight and tomorrow nite are grocery shopping so we picked up a couple of Meatball Subs from our favorite Italian Restaurant. We picked up Salad Fixings but were so tired when we got home we just picked at our Subs and snacked on Heath Bars and Butterfingers. I thought I saw it all but a local Dollar Store is getting their Christmas Decorative items on shelves already. Talk about rushing the season.

[RachelB]

^ Christmas decorations?! In August? Good grief.

Tea-braised tofu tossed with chopped tomato and green onion, served on rice.

Nectarine and dark chocolate for dessert.

[RachelB]

Went to a food truck festival downtown with friends. Some people in my party got steamed pork buns. One person got lemongrass tofu. I got the half and half felafel special-- a small pita of felafel and a small serving of garlicky sweet potato fries, plus all the trimmings (pickled onions and cucumbers; shredded carrots dressed in harissa; citrus-spiked beets; some kind of apple-cabbage slaw; hummus; zhug). If you are fond of vegetables with your protein, this is the truck to go to.

[RachelB]

Cold noodles with fresh vegetables on a hot day.

[RachelB]

Hosting a friend for dinner whom I haven't seen in a while. I'm making a salad of little green lentils with sauteed shallots, roasted peppers, and lemon-spiked olivada, then stuffing tomatoes with romaine-lovage pesto and poached eggs. She's bringing a fruit cobbler.

[onekidanddone]

Salmon, field green salad and broccoli

[RachelB]

Stuffed tomatoes, lentil salad, crusty bread. In honor of The Partner's return and birthday, ginger cake with sweet cream ice cream.

[RachelB]

Herbed rice with pistachios. Tomato salad with olives and white beans. More of that nifty ginger cake.

[RachelB]

White beans and tomatoes dressed in the last of the pesto.

[RachelB]

Last night, vegetarian sausage (apple sage) with peppers, onions, and tart apple.

I made a mini-batch of Nigella Lawson's oven-fried potatoes (1 lb. instead of 6 lb.). The Partner loved them. They tasted lovely, but I probably should have had one piece, instead of 1/4 to 1/3 of the batch (i.e., what TP didn't eat)-- my stomach has been pretty crabby since then.

They smelled kind of like movie theater popcorn while they were in the oven. I used coconut oil in lieu of the duck fat Nigella called for, figuring it was closer in texture and melting point to duck fat than butter, and likely to smoke less in a hot oven.

[Arete]

I roasted a chicken in the beginning of the week and ate it till Friday. This reflux has made my stomach so unpredictable that I am turning to winter comfort food. Today probably some braised pork shoulder, no lemon. :( Those roasts pair well with rice, quinoia, and veggies that don't set off the acid in my stomach.

One good thing about roasting chickens: I can start collecting chicken fat again. I trim any fat I see before cooking and store in a container in the freezer. When I have enough I render, and at the next dinner where people are over roast potatoes, carrots, and beets in the chicken fat. Heaven.

I wish we were like GB that actually sells goose and duck fat in supermarkets. Now that is civilized. :D

[DrPusey]

We had real food, because we went out for a belated anniversary dinner at an Italian trattoria place. Salads for starters; MrDrPusey had a pasta dish with a white wine and lemon sauce and grilled scallops. I had corn risotto with grilled shrimp. We split a piece of grilled peach upside-down cake for dessert.

[RachelB]

Thai melon soup, topped with peanuts, cilantro, and mint; rice and baked tofu.

[cindyluvs24]

Hubby emailed me a recipe on hi lunch hour for pork chops with a sweet potato/apple/agave glaze which i will make tomorrow. I'm too darn tired tonight.

[Geechee Girl]

Thai melon soup, topped with peanuts, cilantro, and mint; rice and baked tofu.

Won't you please be my neighbor?

[Phoenix]

Chicken and rice.

[RachelB]

Won't you please be my neighbor?

If you're ever traveling in Northern California, PM me, and I'll make you dinner. I love cooking for people!

Last night, The Partner invited some friends over for dinner. We made Burmese ginger salad (with napa cabbage, lime, and ALL the crunchy things), a chickpea soup with cress and tomato, a fresh chille chutney, and rice. Damson plums the size of grapes for dessert. (So cute!)

We tweaked the dishes a bit, as one of our guests eats modified paleo: basically, we subbed coconut oil for peanut oil, then subbed almonds for the peanuts and soy nuts that would normally go in the salad. The coconut oil has the wrong mouth feel, IMO, for a dish that's meant to be served chilled or at room temperature. But the soup-- that soup cannot be broken. It's magic.

Tonight, I sliced up an apple and the remaining baked tofu and stacked them to make a very non-traditional napoleon. A bit of dark chocolate as a chaser.

[DrPusey]

I made a new recipe for the first time in a while. It was a sesame baked tofu recipe from a Rose Elliot cookbook, paired with brown rice, broccoli and a "satay sauce." The tofu was good but the sauce was pretty bland. I might try it again with either more peanut butter than the recipe called for, or with some hot sauce added.

[RachelB]

^ Definitely hot sauce. (I say that without having seen the recipe. :lol: )

Tonight, I went to the beginning of season choir potluck.

I brought a quinoa salad with chickpeas and roasted vegetables. Other people supplied green salad, a zucchini quiche, roasted potatoes, and fruit salad.

[whoviana]

Mac and cheese. We had sushi for lunch, from a sushi-to-go place. I like both takeouts or homestyle cooking.

[Geechee Girl]

We're in a heat wave with no a/c. I'm tired of salad. 4/5 bottle of Prosecco & couple frozen TJ's lemon squares.

[RachelB]

A riff on gazpacho.

[toejamflipflop]

Its time for Fall Comfort Foods to grace the table since the temperatures have taken a dip. It was Meatloaf night here with Au Gratin Potatoes and the last of fresh picked corn on the cob from the garden. Frozen Grapes and Pizzelle Cookies were the dessert if anyone wanted any.

[RachelB]

Corn and roasted onion pizza.

[RachelB]

Roasted sweet potato wedges with copious green onion, goat cheese, figs, and apple balsamic vinegar glaze. Apple something afterwards if anyone is hungry.