So sorry about the bento box experience, and I’m glad you’re feeling better. LLD has been telling me various Canadian city’s temperatures to make me feel better about our chilly weekend. Just makes me feel bad for everyone going through it!
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Yay for the new stove!
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Thankfully our cold snap is only lasting two days (yesterday and today) whereas it usually lasts a week. It was -29 when I got up this morning and it is now -26. I’m trying to convince myself progress is good 
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It’s one of those days where I have to wear everything when I go out. I am now at home making chicken soup on the stove top for lunch and I have a stew in the slow cooker for dinner tonight.
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Good afternoon from a seasonally very pleasant northwest England, where I spent an hour this morning pottering round the garden, starting to tidy up the flower beds. Loads of snowdrops out now and the “snowdrop walk” at the back of the garden looks a treat, even though the “walk” is only about four metres long.
Some new recipes for us this week and a couple of old ones as well
Sat - prawn cocktail, followed by braised leg of lamb and veg (a Delia Smith recipe from her Winter Collection). Cheese for afters - we’ve got Duckett’s Caerphilly, Gubbeen and Delay’s “Tasty” Lancashire
Sun - Aubergine cassoulet - (Nigel Slater recipe)
Mon - an Asian-esque chicken & potato bake, with turmeric, cumin, mustard seeds, ginger and chillis . Packet of ready made daal makhani fo a bit of moistness
Tues - baked cod with chorizo, spuds and veg (as yet undetermined)
Weds - out for dinner to a local Syrian retaurant.
Thurs - beef bourgninon from the freezer brown gloop drawer for herself. Locally shot pigeon breasts, from the farmers market, for me. Spuds & veg
Fri - pork satay stirfry, with noodles - only cos we’ve somehow got a packet of stirfry sauce that needs using. Don’t recall buying it.
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Hi, everyone. Cooking for two adults and a tween in the Boston burbs. It’s cold here and so I am distracting myself with planning some fun travel for later this year.
Sun: fettucine with white ragu (Smitten Kitchen Keepers or SKK), roasted asparagus. Also making farro salad with roasted tomatoes (SKK) for my lunches this week.
Mon: roasted tilapia with cherry tomatoes (NYT), side dish tbd
Tues: turkey burgers (patty melt style, maybe?) and spiced sweet potato oven fries (SKK)
Weds: tbd - currently blank on the menu board on our fridge! - need to figure something out before grocery shopping tomorrow.
Thurs: “Baja bowls” (https://iamhomesteader.com/wprm_print/106896) with some tweaks.
Fri: homemade pizza - BJ’s (warehouse club) had King Arthur type 00 pizza flour, so I semi-impulse-bought it. I’m planning to try the neapolitan dough recipe on the bag, which means making it Thurs night for a long slow rise.
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Oh, I wish.
We currently have medical issues that mean we can’t get travel insurance for a while. We’re just having to content ourselves with UK breaks until it’s sorted then whoooosh, we’re off.
Where are you thinking of going to?
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@Rasam and @Harters we are going to Los Angeles in August - a few days at Disneyland and a few days in the general Hollywood area. I also have a milestone birthday this fall and we’re going to London over the (US) Thanksgiving break in late November. So, lots of flight time!
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Happy birthday waay in advance, and wish you safe and fun travels.
I also have a milestone birthday coming up. I did a great trip last fall (to Oman) with a sibling who also had a milestone birthday, it was the trip of a lifetime, but now I want another trip! Sometime this year, somewhere or other, whenever time allows, wherever the budget allows.
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I hope all of you are keeping warm.
For two adults in San Diego:
This week’s breakfasts: I did not bake a cake last week, but instead baked a batch of chocolate chip scones again. So quick, so good.
S: (tonight) takeout - flatbreads from the pub across the street (pepperoni for him, meatball and caramelized onions for me)
Su: Pasta with chicken, tomatoes, spinach in a spicy garlic cream sauce
M: We both have Zooms till 7pm, a little later than we normally eat as part of his glucose regulation, so we’ll eat the leftovers of tonight’s flatbreads.
T: Chicken quesadillas with guacamole
W: TJs gorgonzola gnocchi with spinach, shallots, and spiced pecans - vegetarian
Th: Crab cakes with Caesar salad and garlic bread - seafood
F: TJs Mandarin chicken, veggies, and rice
Have a good week!
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Good time to visit the capital, IMO. If ever it can be said that London has a quiet time for tourists, then this is probably it. Well past the summer influx of foreign tourists but not yet crammed with Britons on Christmas shopping trips.
I lost out on a significant birthday celebration trip at the beginning of the pandemic (Western Canada & Alaska cruise). Lost out on a signifciant anniversary trip last summer as we had Covid. And have lost out on two subsequent cruises due to the medical issues. Mrs H has a signifciant birthday upcoming in July but nothing is planned as yet.
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Cooking for 1 at the Jersey Shore and trying to use stuff in the freezer:
Sunday: leftover lasagna with ground turkey
Monday: ham steak, baked potato, green beans in lemon vodka cream sauce (New Midwestern Table)
Tuesday: mini (turkey) meatloaf with tomato glaze (Smitten Kitchen), mashed potatoes, carrots roasted with thyme
Wednesday: fresh (frozen) spinach pasta with leftover tomato sauce from the freezer
Thursday: leftovers from Wednesday
Friday: pepperoni pizza from the freezer
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That sounds like a lot of upset travel plans @Harters I hope that 2023 or 2024 can successfully revive some of them.
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Oh, geez - that is a lot of bad luck! Here’s hoping your summer plans come together and all the germs stay away.
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Actuals for the week just finished, cooking for 2 in MN, where temperature swings from minus 15 F to plus 40 F are “just more of the same”. The upcoming week features 3 lunches out and 2 evening meetings for me (early suppers at home before those). My husband will be lunching on leftovers without me.
Mon: Reheat Ham & navy bean soup, Kings Hawaaian rolls, Savory bundt, grapes, apples pears
Tues: Shrimp, Mac & Cheese, Mixed Veg
Wed: Schwan’s Brisket, mashed potatoes, green beans
Thurs: Reheat brisket, potatoes, green beans
Fri: lunch was Gyro on Naan bread with tzatziki cucumber sauce, tomatoes, salad on side Sauce recipe starting point here, I use 1 tsp. dried parsley, ½ tsp dried dill and only 1/8 tsp. cumin
Fri dinner: Salmon, Rice Pilaf, Asparagus
Sat and reheated Sun: Ground Beef Spanish Castles (Hungry Boys) casserole, half recipe, Biscuits on top, green beans, canned pears https://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/hungry-boys-casserole/a20b83c7-1c2b-44a3-bc73-3daccb79a591 I liked the comments below the recipe from a son of this winning bake-off recipe’s cook, who noted the original “Spanish Castles” name and making the biscuit dough as meat-filled spirals rather than “cowboy hats”.
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I keep meaning to try that white ragu!
I used the KA 00 flour for the Roberta’s dough recipe, and it was just lovely.
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The white ragu was really tasty, and really beige as the headnote says!
I made the following notes and changes:
- chopped all the vegs (together) in the Cuisinart. The weights roughly correspond to 1 medium carrot and 2 stalks of celery.
- used 2% milk for the milk as well as the heavy cream at the end. I almost never use cream and it seemed silly to buy it for such a small amount. No issues with that substitution.
- a 9-oz package of fresh fettuccine - this was the right ratio of pasta to meat for us. However, I might try a shorter pasta next time - like gemelli - as I threw in the last handful of a box and preferred that texture/size with the ragu.
- when browning the pork, break it up as small as possible. Big chunks don’t work well in the sauce.
- I added about 6oz water while the sauce was simmering, and then about 6-8oz starchy pasta water at the end.
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Thank you!
Found my write-up for Roberta’s – they say it makes 2 x 12" pizzas but ours were maybe 8 - 9". (I used half 00/half AP as written, but my pizza-loving sib said all-00 is even better.)
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