A monumental dinner for me . T bone with zucchini . First dinner while remodeling the cottage on my new property . Waiting to move into the main house. Plastic plate and all.
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Congratulations! 
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must be exciting
I remember moving into our house 1979 after waiting for 6 years . As soon as occupancy permit was given and yet still had tons and tons of work to do and redo! , we moved in.
…Couldn’t keep up with it , had to redo a lot fo stuff that was unsatisfactory to us by the usual contractors. who are unfamiliar with our appliances. Ended up using European workers to redo some of their stuff ( Italians to redo the kitchen in 1989, Germans to restucco as I did not like the sprayed on stucco but opt to h ave the real stucco with 3 coats, mesh and all, and mission tile roof ( not foreign but US Company called ROOFING CENTER, the best contractor i have ever had. They are so good that they were contracted for all the US embassies in foreign countries, a matter of having security clearance etc.etc. I have never seen such an excellent crew and workmanship. Too bad, the owner who was so nice passed away, his nephew inherited the business. We were lucky that business was slow that particular time, so they came as well as re did the cedar roof and siding for my in laws in Annapolis. I had called for inspection of my roof after a storm a few years back, but that was too small a job for him to send a crew over. ) The plumber did to know how to install the faucet from Sweden despite literature given, my husband had to do it. He grumbled as to why we cannot buy ordinary faucet! I still have that faucet to this day!!
The kitchen was one of the most important room for me. I remember when the huge E64 vulcan range was delivered, the electrician commented that it is ugly!! Those were the days when commercial range were not used in household. I still have it to this day.
I had custom made corian countertop and kitchen cabinets( unheard of - the doors were corian that slides open . It was I believe one of the first corian countertop but kitchen cabinet was unheard of) The door proved to be a mistake , and of course, eventually, every body had corian so, I replaced the countertop and cabinets. I want my kitchen to be unique!
We had our floor tiles ( saltillo ) installed everywhere except the installer refused to round the edges for the ends as well as the upright kick plate(?). He thought it was unnecessary to do that. Well, we did not agree with him, so, we had all the floor tiles installed, and did the edge tiles and upright ones on the wall ourself as we rounded all the edges! ( never regretted that as it made the white stucco walls cleaner . )
Those were just some headaches. At any rate, I am in and I will never give up this house in my lifetime. It was built for posterity and hopefully, my son can take over.
GOOD LUCK! SEND A PIC OF YOUR KITCHEN WHEN DONE! I AM SURE WITH YOUR COOKING
ABILITY, HOW YOU PREPARE AND PRESENT YOUR FOOD, THE KTICHEN WILL BE TOPS!
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been busy lately, had guests twice but did not take pictures.
Still eating my chicken salad but last night, decided to make red chicken.
Followed the recipe from epicurious but used chicken legs instead’
Took a while to take the skin off especially where the leg and the feet joined as the skin from the feet were partially there( ugh) Finally had to chop part of them off.
Disappointed because the stock was very thin,
Perhaps it is because I used my tin lined copper pot? Anyway, I dished out the legs, will try and reduce one cup of the stock today and add some starch to thicken it and serve it with bok choy. However, the chicken did not turn up red tinged ( no skin. Read other recipes, some of them brown the chicken first. I followed the ingredients used. ( no rock candy but used brown sugar as the recipe instructed)
ANY SUGGESTION TO SAVE IT from being a disaster dish?
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A nice day spent with Mom, sister, and SIL. Picked up sandwiches and soup from Joppa Fine Foods in Newburyport to enjoy lunch at Mom’s apartment. Stopped at WF on the way home to pick up meal makings for tonight and tomorrow.
Tonight was roasted chicken breast, seasoned with olive oil, salt, pepper, ground sumac, and dried thyme. Leftover saffron rice, and steamed broccoli. Wine.
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I had yard work planned for this weekend, but Mother Nature had other plans for me today - it’s pouring rain here! I’m not complaining, though - my plants need the water and after digging up 300 square feet of beds yesterday, I need a day off. So, I’ll be spending the day on kitchen projects. I’ve got chicken meatballs simmering now, pot roast and Brussels sprouts planned for dinner. While I have the oven on, I’ll probably make some spiced pecans and maybe roast a spaghetti squash to have some pre-cooked strands available for the week.
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Football (Yay, Patriots!), movie on Amazon Prime, baking, and dinner. A perfect way to spend a gray and rainy autumn Sunday afternoon.
Dinner was Mom’s Lemon Pot Roast, taters, and carrots. Wine alongside.
Dessert will be a Pumpkin-Apple baby booondt cake with a vanilla-cinnamon glaze, with ice cream alongside.
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As odd as it is, the very, very, very last of the season’s local eggplant and corn were on offer at a nearby farm stand (Farmer Dave’s/Hill Orchards in Westford, MA) when we went to get apples today. At the end of October we still haven’t had a hard frost in the Merrimack Valley. Incredible. Dinner had to be roasted eggplant and—yes, corn on the cob.
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Oh Oh Oh!!! I want that bundt cake recipe. I am diving into mini-bundt cakes again now that I found this tool for cleaning:
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/bundt-pan-cleaning-brush
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Tonight’s dinner involved Mr. SMT’s college friends. These men were ushers at our wedding, actually spent part of our honeymoon with us, have vacationed with us… we have raised children, mourned the loss of one, and witness both a new love and a divorce 22 years ago. If they all get together every two years, that is a lot. Scattered.
So, I didn’t take pictures. Tonight was all about feeding them.
Carnitas, using the last of my January Savenor pig, with black beans, Mexican rice and Curtido. On the table, some crumbly cheese, sour cream, avocados, diced tomatoes, salsa verde, and some limes. I made enough of everything to make burritos for lunch tomorrow, but, there aren’t any leftovers. I will need to recalculate.
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Pork roast rubbed with olive oil, tons of garlic powder, minced onion, sage, s&p … roasted with a bit
of chicken stock, apple cider, wine, dried cranberry, garlic cloves . Cooked at 250 for way too many hours, pox on you propane stove, fifteen minute tented rest and a 450 convection blast for 15 more long minutes. I made a pan sauce with some of the drippings, it was good but not necessary … we preferred it with what was in the bottom of the roasting pan … asparagus on the side … I’m fatigued by the number of hours I was in the kitchen tonight. It was almost kind of worth it good though.
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Do you know what cut this was? The propane might be your pox, but the results look fabulous! Cooking fatigue is a common occurrence in the SMT kitchen I am afraid.
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Totally dumping rain alllllll day today! I ran out for an errand and had my umbrella turned inside out and came home soaked…
kitchen projects today included bottling my kombucha (juiced lemons and ginger to flavor most of them, did a few with cranberry also) , made a new batch of kombucha, made a big pot of sweet potato/lentil/peanut butter/tomato/kale stew for lunches and the freezer, and then made some socca.
I prefer making socca on the stovetop like a pancake. This batch i just added some salt/pepper and a little rosemary. For dinner i topped my socca with a bunch of baby arugala, a pile of sautéed mushrooms and some fancy olives. Some radishes on the side that i dipped in smoked salt- half of them were mild and the others were really spicy! Kabocha a la carte
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Thank you, it was supposed to be a rib roast, but looked a hell of a lot more like a shoulder roast with that stupid bone in the center, it did have ribs and an in tact chine and feather bone which created additional torture but made it all the better. What ever it was it was good. This cooking method I use all of the time when roasting pork because it gives it an almost Sous-vide texture, it’s just a total pain in the ass.
If anyone knows what I roasted, please tell 
Am I just used to having the bones cracked by the butcher?
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I could eat this every day!
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BF’s dinner Friday night was sort of a mash-up of Peruvian and Mexican. Pan-fried chicken with mexi-rice, corn on the cob, salsa fresca, and fried loroco cheese on a puddle of aji amarillo blended with a little crema. he has really mastered that rice!
tonight i made a Vietnamese ground pork stirfry with a ton of dried thai chilies, ginger, scallions, basil, fish sauce, soy, etc., with a little rice, veggies/herbs for wraps, and a crispy fried egg.
also prepped a Provencal-ish chicken dish for tomorrow night’s dinner, with roasted and fresh tomatoes, potatoes, onion, fennel, olives, lemon slices. pic is before it went into the oven after searing the boneless/skinless thighs. why Trader Joe’s, why can’t you stock some skin-ON thighs?
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@chowdom and @Scubadoo97 are masters of bbq and roast. @mariacarmen and BF are masters of fusion. Scuba is also master of leftovers.
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Tonight, I made beef and quinoa stuffed peppers and three bean salad on the side. Bean salad was just ok. I don’t have a go to recipe, so this was a random from online.
I made another batch of crackers. Definitely hooked on them!
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My moroccan feast continues the second week, you can see several dishes in here:
I think I start to grasp the idea of taste and the essential ingredients, olives, tomatoes, onions, parsley, cilantro, cumin, paprika, olive oil…
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