What's For Dinner - Part 2

[RachelB]

If it ever finishes cooking, I will be eating wheat berry stew with chard and pomegranate molasses. I think it matters what variety of wheat berry you use. The one I'm familiar with takes 90 minutes, maybe 2 hours, to cook. The recipe suggests 60-70 minutes of cooking. Yeah, no-- I should have trusted past history.

It smells really good, anyway.

[Arete]

If it ever finishes cooking, I will be eating wheat berry stew with chard and pomegranate molasses. I think it matters what variety of wheat berry you use. The one I'm familiar with takes 90 minutes, maybe 2 hours, to cook. The recipe suggests 60-70 minutes of cooking. Yeah, no-- I should have trusted past history.

It smells really good, anyway.

In my experience wheat berries take FOREVER. Two hours sounds about average to me.

[1004srs]

Peppermint ice cream for me and the kids tonight. We eat so good most of the time...... We needed a night to watch movies and eat ice cream.

[samurai_sarah]

Last pheasant of the season, in a cider sauce. Plus creamy savoy cabbage and cheesy mash. Winter suddenly broke out on us in Scotland, so I have no compunctions about breaking out the cream, cheese and bacon. :)

[sparkles]

Red lentil, tomato and kale soup and a cheese and olive buttermilk herb quick bread that was freaking awesome. My food blog recipe searches are really paying off.

[RachelB]

Spinach and pine nut ravioli. Shredded carrot salad with raisins, walnut oil, and sherry vinegar.

For dessert, there is some mamey ice cream in the freezer.

[Arete]

Another day off because of heavy snow.

I made an orange and fennel salad for lunch using a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Added sliced avocado because I had one about to go into over ripe territory. Highly recommend the salad, with or without avocado.

Dinner was beef stroganoff, and I substituted Greek yogurt for sour cream because that is what I had available. I couldn't taste a difference.

[RachelB]

Herby omelets filled with chard, fennel, and goat cheese.

[RachelB]

Jook, stir-fried Chinese greens, baked tofu, and fried shallot.

[RachelB]

We're having a friend over for a cooking party tonight and are making something out of The Artful Vegan-- a pasta dish with roasted winter vegetables and a carrot sauces spiked with southwestern spices. We'll have chocolate atole for dessert:

Dissolve brown sugar in water. Heat to simmer, adding ground parched corn*, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and a little cayenne if you like. Cook about 15 minutes, whisking regularly, until the cornmeal particles are tender, then add some chopped dark chocolate and stir to melt. It's like a non-dairy hot chocolate.

*You can do something similar with a fine cornmeal that's not parched; you won't have the toasted, nutty flavor that the parched corn imparts (like a cross between popcorn and roasted peanuts), but it will be similarly thick.

[sparkles]

Margherita pizza with a rustic ciabatta crust

[RachelB]

Ravioli filled with winter squash and topped with a puree of roasted red pepper with a little olive oil and garlic.

[sparkles]

Smitten Kitchen's warm potato and lentil salad for lunch, creamy chicken and wild rice soup (made with cauliflower sauce) for dins and berry chia seed pudding for dessert.

[notachance]

Food and wine magazine's asparagus sub sandwich with smoky French dressing and feta cheese

[Arete]

Asian style chicken and rice soup. Meaning I cooked the stock with a few pieces of fresh ginger, and added fish sauce and a little sriracha to my bowl at the table.

[RachelB]

Mushroom and sundried tomato pizza. Sauteed garlicky wild radish greens. For dessert, part of a pomelo that tastes like a margarita.

[DrPusey]

I had leftovers from last night - linguine with brussels sprouts, mushrooms, and red peppers in a parmesan-white wine sauce.

[notachance]

Indian cauliflower with peas and basmati rice. And reeses pieces for dessert...

[Aerial312]

Nytimes recipe for frittata of couscous and zhoug (condiment from Jerusalem cookbook). That zhoug makes everything delicious.

[RachelB]

Last night, we had leftover jook with a stir-fry of carrots, onion, and ginger (plus the usual crunchy / leafy / spicy condiments).

Tonight I am making caramelized fennel with goat cheese (out of Ottolenghi's Plenty), plus making some olive-walnut paste to spread on bread and have with it.

[sparkles]

Tonight is polenta with chicken sausage, garlicky sauteed spinach and tomatoes and a poached egg. From thekitchn.com

[Arete]

Last night, we had leftover jook with a stir-fry of carrots, onion, and ginger (plus the usual crunchy / leafy / spicy condiments).

Tonight I am making caramelized fennel with goat cheese (out of Ottolenghi's Plenty), plus making some olive-walnut paste to spread on bread and have with it.

OK, I have a fennel bulb looking for its purpose in life. Do you slice and stir fry in oil like you would carmelize onions? Goat cheese on top of carmelized fennel at serving? Bored cooks need to know! :pray:

[RachelB]

I cut off and reserved the frondy arms, then sliced the bulbs in half. (The directions were to slice lengthwise into 1/2-inch slices, keeping the core attached so the slices wouldn't fall apart, but our bulbs were so small that cutting them in half meant they were thin enough.)

We fried them in a mix of butter and olive oil over medium-high, searing them on both sides, then removed them from the pan and tossed in a tsp. of fennel seed, some sugar (the recipe called for 2 T., but I didn't use quite that much and it was still sweeter than we wanted), plus salt and pepper. Melt the sugar, toss the fennel slices back in to coat with the sugary goo, then plate them with a bit of crushed garlic, some of the reserved fronds, and lemon zest.

And since I had zested the lemon, we deglazed the pan with a little lemon juice, then tossed that on top. The recipe didn't call for it, but the pan was ridiculously sticky, and the fennel would have been way too sweet without the lemon. Goat cheese dabs on top for serving.

A less fussy approach that remains my favorite: Slice fennel into wedges and steam about 5 minutes. (I use some of the stalky bits, too, but give them longer.) I toss it with some oil and lemon.

[RachelB]

Tonight is Valentine's Day Observed in our apartment! On the menu:

Bittersweet salad (radicchio, red orach, red frill mustard, blood orange, fennel slices, fresh ricotta, maple vinaigrette)

Sidekick tomato soup (a recipe procured from a local restaurant we enjoy)

My first attempt at gougeres (because it's more festive than grilled cheese with tomato soup)

Homemade coffee ice cream

[DrPusey]

Tonight is Valentine's Day Observed in our apartment! On the menu:

Bittersweet salad (radicchio, red orach, red frill mustard, blood orange, fennel slices, fresh ricotta, maple vinaigrette)

Sidekick tomato soup (a recipe procured from a local restaurant we enjoy)

My first attempt at gougeres (because it's more festive than grilled cheese with tomato soup)

Homemade coffee ice cream

That all sounds really tasty to me, except for the fennel in the salad. Fennel and I are enemies.

I have a recipe for a thick chilled banana yogurt "soup" which is really more of the consistency of a smoothie. I plan on making that tonight, modifying it for just one serving, and then adding a little rum to it. Slurp.