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Taking advantage of my wife’s absence, I decided to cook one of my favourite, full of 'wok-hay ', delicious but simple, one dish meal - Hong Kong Cafe style ‘stirred fry sliced beef with tomatoes and aromatics on rice’.
Sooooo good!! Those gorgeous caramelized beef provide a nice affirmation!
BTW, fragrance from my nightly blooming Corn Plant masks the smokey odour brilliantly!
Quick dinner tonight. Large B/S chicken thigh with sauteed sliced mushrooms and chopped red bell pepper in a mustard-wine cream sauce. Green beans and leftover rice pilaf alongside.
Wine.
Yesterday, and after a heavy day of holiday shopping, dinner was on the fly: burgers and fries at Habit Burger.
Tonight was a one-pan, oft-made, autumnal favorite: Nigella’s Spanish chicken and chorizo. I used fresh sausage and garden veg. A little fresh-squeezed OJ goes a long way here, as does an orange-infused olive oil. Comforting fall fair.
Roasted pork tenderloin, cranberry sauce sauce. Baked red sweet potato, tpstob and a salad of mixed greens, carrot, honey mustard dressing. Wine.
Tonight’s dinner was TJ’s Japanese fried rice augmented with cauliflower rice, tofu, and scrambled eggs, hakurei turnips and radishes braised with mirin and miso butter, and cucumber.
Who’s they?
A little bit of both? I would have preferred them with punchier seasonings, but I’m realizing I’m also not that big on kidney beans - even cooked from dried.
A late dinner.
Due to being late(r) leaving work tonight.
Due to me wanting to get everything done.
Due to me being on PTO next week.
Due to me hoping not to have to work much next week while on PTO.
A big ass steak tip grilled on a cast iron grill pan and finished in the oven.
Ballymaloe steak sauce drizzled on top.
Baked potato with TPSTOB&SC.
Slightly over-steamed broccoli.
Wine. Lots of wine.
I made a pan of Chicken Scarpariello, a first for me. Very good. Salad of mixed greens, little gem, red onion, tomato, mushrooms, gorgonzola cheese. Oo & v dressing. There was a bourbon & tonic and wine.
Mrs. P made pan seared boneless quail breast salad with arugula, mini peppers, delicata squash, sautéed red onions, and various fruits. It went great with an excellent Syrah.
Perfect, hearty comfort food for a ‘stay-at-home’ meal on a cold wintry evening!!
Rice Congee with peanuts, dried stock-fish and salted pork bones! ( 柴魚花生粥 ) accompanied by savoury Fried Crullers!
So flavourful and good! Move over Congee Queen!!
I made Cascatelli with roasted herbed butternut squash, nutty aged Gouda, Swiss chard, sage, browned butter and toasted hazelnuts, inspired by Dinner: a love story.
Haircut Day.
Trip to my local Penzeys and Wegmans.
The latter also means it’s Scallop Day.
I kept it light for dinner tonight: pan-seared scallops (not as much sear as I’d like, but they still cooked up nicely) on a bed of baby spinach with lemon, pepper, and toasted Mediterranean pine nuts.
I have a reaction to any pine nuts other than those from the Mediterranean. Any others gives me pine mouth, meaning I get a metallic taste in my mouth for about 3-7 days after eating inferior pine nuts from Russia, Vietnam, or Korea, including a metallic taste if I drink water! So I use them few and far between.
There was wine.
Beautiful plate of food!
Sauteed shrimp over basmati rice, onion, carrot, peas. Asparagus and a salad of mixed greens, green onion, celery, radish, the last of the garden snap peas, creamy Greek dressing. There was a Beefeater and tonic, Beefeater rocks and ice water.
We enjoyed another excellent dinner at James on Main in Hackettstown, NJ, including swordfish with Maine mussels in a yellow curry sauce; lamb shank with fried artichoke; crispy duck leg confit with forbidden black rice, coconut roasted pumpkin velvet, spiced golden raisin and ginger glaze; endive and apple salad, and a delicious chocolate budino cake with toffee crunch, golden raisin jam, and caramel. It all went great with an excellent Malbec and Syrah.
That’s what I call a real breakfast for dinner treat.
I would advise caution with the pine nuts. I have a cousin who could die if he eats pine nuts, and doesn’t get to a hospital. I was with him when he had a reaction, and it was frightening! Restaurants sometimes add them to food that you wouldn’t expect which is what happened.
