What's For Dinner - Part 2

[DrPusey]

Jerk-grilled salmon and rapini. I reckon some actual food is in order today over last night's meal of jellybeans and dark chocolate peanut butter cups. :mrgreen:

I love rapini, but rarely take the trouble to make it for myself.

The dark chocolate PB cups weren't the Trader Joe's ones, by any chance? I love those suckers, but I've had to stop buying them because I have no self control when they're in the house.

[Geechee Girl]

The dark chocolate PB cups weren't the Trader Joe's ones, by any chance? I love those suckers, but I've had to stop buying them because I have no self control when they're in the house.

Yep, TJ's! They are so addictive, I have to limit myself. Now the Triple Ginger cookies, I can finish those off in a day.

[RachelB]

Avocado halves filled with spicy black bean salad.

[Geechee Girl]

Avocado halves filled with spicy black bean salad.

Care to share your bb salad recipe? It sure beats the dry cereal & white wine spritzer I'm having tonight.

[RachelB]

Care to share your bb salad recipe? It sure beats the dry cereal & white wine spritzer I'm having tonight.

Sure! I modified this by adding about a cup of minced tomato and a garlic clove, doubling the cumin, and making a slightly bigger batch of salad than the recipe called for. Corn wouldn't be out of place, but I didn't have any on hand. I'll eat what's left over of the black bean salad with scrambled eggs and/or tortillas this weekend.

[Geechee Girl]

Sure! I modified this by adding about a cup of minced tomato and a garlic clove, doubling the cumin, and making a slightly bigger batch of salad than the recipe called for. Corn wouldn't be out of place, but I didn't have any on hand. I'll eat what's left over of the black bean salad with scrambled eggs and/or tortillas this weekend.

Thanks! Little Miss GG is always looking for a way to hook up her avocado. I'll follow your lead with the additions. I have a bag of frozen roasted corn I need to use up.

[RachelB]

^ Great!

Tonight, I'm having ravioli filled with mushrooms and dried tomatoes, topped with chopped fresh tomato tossed with walnut oil and a bit of crushed garlic.

[DrPusey]

I had a loaded baked potato with grated Red Leicester cheese, some crumbled bacon, sour cream, and chopped chives from our garden. Sweet tea vodka and lemonade cocktail with a little mint (also from our garden) for dessert/drink.

[Geechee Girl]

Lunch today was grilled shrimp tacos topped with RacelB's black bean salad, and limeade.

[RachelB]

I'm eating leftover ravioli tonight.

I am making two of my favorite picnic foods for a get-together tomorrow-- a cucumber salad with lots of coconut, mung dal, and spices (done!) and a batch of sundal (chickpeas with coconut, mustard seeds, chile, mango powder, salt, and lemon). The time-consuming part of the chickpea dish is already done-- I just need to toast the coconut, fry the seeds, juice the lemon, and mix things.

I am not making rice this year, as I know someone is bringing bread, and I've learned that rice at room temperature is excellent for culturing bacteria of a DO NOT WANT sort.

[RachelB]

Smashed chickpea salad sandwich with cress. For dessert, a nectarine.

I want cress on everything. It is so good.

[Geechee Girl]

Cheddar w/caramelized onions and crackers.

[RachelB]

Migas. (The Tex-Mex variety.)

[Arete]

Split pea soup, and there is enough to freeze a few servings.

[Geechee Girl]

Brown rice fusili w/pecan pesto, artichoke hearts, 'shrooms, Vidalias, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. Plus, a glass of Riesling.

[RachelB]

This was the first market day all year where it was hard to decide what fruit we were going to get, because there were many very good things. The bad news is, there will be no sour cherries at all this year in Northern California. (moment of silent reflection) The good news is, the one high-acid white nectarine* that we'll see all year is now available.

A fresh pea soup with mint, slightly modified from this recipe. Open faced sandwiches with mild goat spreadable cheese and chopped arugula and dandelion greens. Broiled peaches.

*I generally don't even bother tasting white stone fruit, because it tastes somewhere between cotton and cotton candy to me. But these are floral and tangy-- downright cracktacular-- and are going into breakfast, clafoutis, salad, and MY FACE.

[SamE]

Take out chinese food. Yummy....

[Arete]

Wait, what happened to the sour cherries in Northern California, RachelB? Here in the Northeast, I seriously look forward to our crop all winter and spring. I use most of what I buy to make a much loved traditional Greek spoon sweet and syrup. My supply is usually gone by December. I shed a tear for your loss this year. :(

Today I woke up and wanted RED MEAT in the worst way. All I had was ground beef, so I improvised and made ginger beef with it instead of flank. Put in broccoli, carrots, and rehydrated shitakes, and that was lunch and will be dinner. Rice and cucumber salad on side.

[RachelB]

Wait, what happened to the sour cherries in Northern California, RachelB? Here in the Northeast, I seriously look forward to our crop all winter and spring. I use most of what I buy to make a much loved traditional Greek spoon sweet and syrup. My supply is usually gone by December. I shed a tear for your loss this year. :(

Today I woke up and wanted RED MEAT in the worst way. All I had was ground beef, so I improvised and made ginger beef with it instead of flank. Put in broccoli, carrots, and rehydrated shitakes, and that was lunch and will be dinner. Rice and cucumber salad on side.

Sour cherries apparently like it cool but not terribly cold. We had a weird hot spell at exactly the wrong time, followed by a rare freeze. The fact that we are deep in drought meant the trees were more fragile to begin with.

Even in good years, the sour cherry crop is meager here-- it typically is one Saturday market long, and is typically sold out by the time the market officially opens at 8 a.m. We bought 20 pounds last June, then pitted and froze them in vacuum-sealed bags over the course of two days. We're down to our last half-pound. I am trying to figure out something worthy of those last cherries, now that they have become Unobtainium.

Edited to add:

For dinner tonight, we'll have lemon ricotta ravioli with a salad of nectarines, herbs, cress, and chopped, toasted hazelnuts.

[DrPusey]

^Your dinner tonight sounds yummy, Rachel.

My parents (who live in Missouri) have cherry trees and usually share when the harvest is decent. I thought I'd used them all, but found a few bags in the freezer recently that I'd forgotten I had. So: cherry pie in my future, I think.

Dinner tonight for us will be a duo of mushroom and artichoke ravioli (I didn't make it, but it's local) with balsamic-roasted asparagus.

[RachelB]

I had a corn, zucchini, and cheddar tamale topped with chiles and chopped tomato, chased by the last of the cress / nectarine salad.

[SamE]

Baked chicken, baked potatoes and salad. Fruit for desert. It was Co-op day, so we had a huge choice of fresh veggies to combine with our homegrown lettuce and spinach.

[Arete]

Hot and humid today. Roasted 3 eggplants, then cut up the "meat" and tossed with parsley, oregano, scallions, lemon juice and olive oil. Put it over couscous.

[DrPusey]

Nothing fancy tonight - I made myself a quesadilla with cojack cheese, onions, garlic, and some mushrooms that needed using. Local strawberries for dessert.

[Geechee Girl]

Shrimp w/mushroom & pea risotto topped with caramelized Vidalias.