I have made this appetizer-sized chicken bastilla recipe for a potluck. I might make something like it again this month.
Interestingly this recipe calls for optional mastic. Maybe I’ll try this second recipe instead.
last year, i bought my smoker-enthusiast brother a very fancy brisket from Snake River Farm. it sat in his freezer all year; the other week he did a trial run with a non-fancy brisket, deemed the method and recipe acceptable, and tomorrow we are slated to enjoy this luscious piece of meat. he’s been texting me progress photos of it all night as he trims and seasons it, and prepares it for the smoker.
to go with, i am making martha’s mac and cheese with croutons, a very big pile green beans with lemon, a green salad, and fifteen thousand cookies. oh, and homemade ice cream.
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We are in that phase of the season where the focus is on easy comfort food. We got our tamales from a new source. They are quite good but not great. So we need to polish off another dozen and then go back to our regular source. Tonight will be ravioli and salad. On the subject of salad, we love those living lettuce heads of butter lettuce. The other night we had it with walnuts, bleu cheese, and a red wine (Banyuls) vinaigrette. Tonight we will have it with bleu cheese, red onion, avocado, and a Champagne vinaigrette. When growing season rolls around, I need to plant some lettuce in pots I can protect. Last night’s quick and easy was cottage pie. It is supposed to get cold tonight. We can finish the cottage pie tomorrow.
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Mrs H scored a large leg of lamb at the supermarket and that’s been tonight’s dinner. It was New Zealand lamb and we usually only ever buy British - but this was a half price bargain. Not as fully flavoured as our own but not bad. Anyway, there was lots of leftovers which are now in the freezer. Some will go for a future shwarma, the rest frozen with the leftover gravy for a future shepherd’s pie.
This should have been the opening night of our festive season - the plan had been to go into the city for a carol concert, followed by dinner and we were going to stay overnight and visit the Christmas market tomorrow. However, we’re b oth under the weather so cancelled all that. Four course dinner was a not bad substitute - mushrooms with garlic & parsley butter (with bread), the lamb studded with garlic and rosemary, French cheese (Brie and Comte) and more bread and profiterolls with chocolate sauce. An rare French slant Chez Harters
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Oh yay! I was hoping for pics. Was the brisket fabulous?!
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Unspeakably good. I instantly wished I hadn’t put anything but brisket and pepper slaw on my plate.
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I thought this was a different thread. 
My bad. It’s been a long week 
Yes, please. Perfection.
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A shepherd’s pie would have been an upgrade. We love lamb.
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The ravioli were a stunning surprise. In the refrigerator section for fresh pasta we grabbed some ravioli, store brand (HEB) porcini and truffle. They were wonderful.
TO START: butternut squash soup
MAIN: Carbonnade Flamande served over a large bed of potato gnocchi
DESSERT: Bread budding a la mode (vanilla ice cream preferably)
JUST BECAUSE: Egg nog with rum
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How weird, I literally made chicken pastilla the day you posted it but didn’t see your post until now.
I looked at the NYT link you posted - that recipe seems a bit complicated. I use this one from London restauranteurs Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich:
I just make the chicken and don’t bother with the pastry bit. I can adjust the sweetness level (more or less dates) and don’t add any icing sugar. It’s a bit family favourite and fairly easy to make.
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Seems I’m late to the party but wanted to respond anyways, I need to join in the community more lol.
The main thing I have to add is soups/stews! Chicken tortilla soup always makes an appearance. Been honing a recipe for years. This year i’ll probably make Brooke Williamson’s awesome Mushroom Barley Soup. She puts little cubes of gruyere in it, like come on!
I regularly make a quick ramenish kind of soup for lunch, especially this time of year. Make a quick broth with doenjang, gochujang, gochugaru, maybe dashima/kombu, or miso, or fish sauce, or lime lol. Ginger and garlic too if I feel like pulling out the rasp. Then throw in whatever leftovers sound good, veggies from the freezer if nothing sounds good and whatever dried noodles you’ve got. Don’t get me wrong, I love packaged instant ramen like way too much, but I feel way better about the health factor of my meal if I take the extra 5 minutes to put some effort into it. And truly the effort is just dumping pastes into water lol.
Wow it sure is easy to write way too much when talking about food, huh? lol
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Yeah, you kinda wandered into a sort of echo chamber in that regard! There’s more than a few of us who can/will ramble on and on about food. And pets. And movies. And music. But mostly food. Welcome to HO.
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Love that! Thanks for the welcome 
Really waiting til the last minute here, but tonight I did a test run of a recipe from “Six Seasons of Pasta” for my holiday party (this weekend, gulp.) pork and beef ragu with kale and chile …. And fish sauce! Love this!
It was really good! Wrong noodle for it but that’s easily fixed. Can’t wait to make a big batch of this for the party.
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Even at 7 am that looks spectacular
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Hah, thanks. The recipe’s labor was mostly in the chopping of the kale - happy to share it if you’re interested
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