Pre-travel pantry/fridge clean out dinner, resulting in bucatini & chitarra al pomodoro. Infused olive oil with rosemary, thyme & a couple smashed up garlic cloves, sautéed a whole onion sliced thinly, added tomato paste & Calabrian pepper, splash of red, the last of the FM tomatoes (grated), capers, kalamata olives, feta, TJ’s frozen basil.
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Tacos! it’s been a while. BF made a sort of guisado with leftover pork we had from a couple of dinners, with lots of salsa fresca, and a little side salad of odds and ends. I added a dollop of creme fraiche to my tacos as we were out of sour cream and crema. Good sub.
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Pasty, green salad…as if the rutabega in the pasty weren’t enough veg…
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Busy day in the kitchen yesterday! DD2 and SIL came down for the day, seeking help and cooking companionship cooking for a sick friend and his wife. They brought some fantastic breakfast pastries from a neighborhood bakery, so we got a good start on our culinary adventures. We made 3 pans of moussaka, 3 pans of pastitsio, 2 pans of chicken souvlaki over rice pilaf, with fresh green beans, 2 loaves of oven ready garlic bread, and 2 poppyseed cakes. The moussaka and pastitsio look nearly identical due to the bechamel and cheese topping. The garlic bread is not pictured. For dinner we sampled the 2 casseroles, with garlic bread, and ended with cake. Life was pretty good yesterday!!
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Chicken, onion, garlic, poblano pepper, mole tacos, topped with radish, avocado, queso fresco cheese. Doctored up canned pinto beans with sharp cheddar. Lots of cilantro. Sangria.
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Pan-roasted, boneless, skin-on chicken pieces (breast for me, thighs for him). Leftover potato gratin. Baby garden peas (from frozen).
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Let’s hear it!
My stomach audibly growled. Looks so good!
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It’s just me, and I prefer chicken to roast turkey. Alas, TJ’s has sold out of the maple mustard marinated spatchcocked chicken. But I did notice, and snag, the last Empire kosher turkey breast half. I broke it down into the tenderloin and two other thicker pieces, now frozen. There will at some point be soup (including the removed rib/breastbone section in the stock), à la king, and curry.
While at TJ’s in early November 2021, I bought a stalk of Brussels sprouts and their smallest spiral sliced quarter ham. Two days later I entered the hospital for an arrhythmia procedure that should have involved an overnight stay. Things went south; after coding, resuscitation, an ICU stay, nursing home, return to ICU with a collapsed lung, and two more stays in different nursing homes, I didn’t get home until after President’s Day. I had left the bagged sprout stalk on the chilly indoor stairs, assuming they’d be there only a couple of days before I disassembled it. It was dried out goo. The ham is STILL in my fridge. I’ve been putting off unwrapping and examining it, which is all the more stupid as when I left the nursing home, I was thinking it might still be edible. Then spring came and I didn’t want to invite critters by having the ham in the trash cart. This may be the week to face the music!
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Awesome! So kind.
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That is a lot. Glad you’re home.
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The companionship sounds wonderful, but I love the generosity and kindness towards the friends you were all cooking for.
(One of these days I’ll try my hand at pastitsio - have been intrigued by it for a while.)
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Thanks - I’m proud of the kids for wanting to make meals, and everything turned out well. They were going to drop the food off today, but the friend wound up back in the hospital. So hoping for the best outcome.
@Saregama - let me know if you’ve got any questions about pastitsio - such a comforting dish it is.
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What an ordeal - hope you’re fully recovered by now, and can enjoy Thanksgiving this year.
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Other half of the pizza dough in a plain old pie, but the first in my countertop oven, so it was an experiment. Used a pizza stone and a silpat sized for it, which I removed once the dough set so the bottom could crisp up.
Sautéed snow pea leaves on the side
I didn’t love the dough as much as the one with 00, though the overnight rise in the fridge made it a lot better than yesterday’s same-day use. Nowhere near the char achieved in my sib’s screaming hot oven, but I didn’t expect it.
Conclusion for my oven’s vagaries is to try par-baking the crust before topping, or using the stovetop start hack next time. But I loved yesterdays combination and ease, so I may just stick with that.
Think I’m pizza’d out for a while, though.
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Earlier: used the rest of the duck broth to make wonton soup with the last 4 plump wontons from flushing chinatown a few months ago, which I remembered were still in the freezer exactly for such use. More yu choy and aromatics to round it out. Yum!
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Best wishes to the friend for good recovery. It’s hard to feel helpless when friends are going through stuff like this. (For me, making something makes me feel like I’m doing something to help even when I can’t help with what’s actually happening.)
@Lambchop if you’re willing to share your recipe or method, that would be amazing. And if not, any tips would be welcome!
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@greygarious from your mentions now and then it sounded like a rough ride, but this sounds so awful and extended — hope you are doing a little or a lot better now.
I don’t know if you knew (or remember) that I went to visit my sibling and family for a few days just before COVID hit, and came back a year later… I had no idea what was even in my fridge when I got back, and avoided clearing it out for longer than I’m willing to admit 
. But when I eventually did, it was cathartic.
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Those wontons! 
