What’s For Dinner #87 - the Holiday Menu Planning Edition - November 2022

I gotta ask - is there some difference between those three pictures?

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LAMB SHANKS!

I ate these pretty regularly when I was living on my own, but haven’t had them since the pandemic started. This recipe looked good. I made a much smaller batch (two huge shanks rather than the multiple smaller ones the recipe calls for) so I scaled everything down. One negative of that is I had to guess how much braising liquid I’d need, and as usual I underestimated, which resulted in QUITE a concentrated sauce. I thinned it with some water and partially blizted it with an immersion blender, but didn’t bother to strain.

The photo I took isn’t pretty so I won’t bother to post it, but I’m just happy to have eaten something a bit different for the first time in a long time :slight_smile:

ETA that WHOA is lamb much more expensive than it used to be.

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They were taken at slightly different angles. I’m sorry I know you don’t like to scroll through unnecessary pictures. One picture would have probably been enough.

Clever use of the pesto chicken @paryzer — one I see myself copying!

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Roasted pork tenderloin, bbq sauce. Baby potatoes, French filet beans with bacon and onion. Cruciferous slaw, carrots, golden raisins, sunflower seeds, honey mustard dressing. Uno Negroni.

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Moroccan-spiced chicken meatballs. On the side an apricot-almond rice pilaf, and a spiced carrot salad.

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Oh my, your dinner speaks to me! I’m sure it was very tasty!

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A lot of my work involves editing, so I’m always asking myself - and the rest of the world - “do we need ALL of this?” But it won’t kill me to scroll, so you do you. The pasta looks very nice.

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Spaghetti squash bake with mushroom tomato sauce, mozz and balcony basil, which is not dead yet!

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It was all very good. My favorite might have been the carrot salad, however - so fresh!

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What’s this? Dinner cooked and photographed two nights in a row? Almost feel like myself!

I feel like last week was freezing, the last few days nearly hit 80, and tonight was approaching high 40’s. No wonder my sinuses are a mess.

Today I had the strangest craving for…chicken gravy. Canned, jarred, powdered packet, whatever! Don’t know where it came from. Anyway, made the house’s favorite chicken cutlets (its been weeks), with mashed potatoes, McCormick chicken gravy, and used some broccoli that had been in the fridge a while in a part-Gratin, part-let’s just dump a bunch of breadcrumbs and grated cheese on it and throw it in the oven.

Johnnie Red Rob Roy to drink.

Tomorrow is my History of Food lecture. Put many last minute details on it today. Rather nerve-wracking. I present tomorrow afternoon at the local community college-- their culinary department is even cooking for us as well.

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My first foray into the WFD thread - no photos.

Sautéed hot Italian sausage, drained,. Add chicken stock baby spinach, and plenty of fresh ground pepper. Boiled what I had on hand penne until el dente. orecchiette is nowhere to be found here anymore. Add pasta to the mix. along with parmesan. And dammit, almost every time I drain pasta I forget to save some of the salty starchy water but I made it work. Italian cheesy bread on the side. Dessert was Chocolate cream pie made with instant pie filling, ready made graham crust and canned whipped cream. I’m not the least bit embarrassed about something that tastes good.

A Dewar’s on the rocks and I’m done for the night.

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Thanks. Your spaghetti squash bake looks awesome.
I agree that I should edit myself sometimes. I have trouble deciding which pictures to use sometimes, so I post multiple pictures at slightly different angles, when in most cases one or two pictures would be more than enough.

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Thanks! By cutting the cutlets into bite size pieces and mixing it with pasta we were able to get 3 dinners out of it. The only thing is that you would need more pesto sauce because there isn’t enough sauce for the chicken and pasta.

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Something of a quick mix between a chili and bolognese with fresh pork sausage, diced tomatoes, garlic, onion, red wine and white beans. Served over rice and topped with some shredded fresh mozzarella mixed with basil and lemon zest.

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Good luck on your presentation - not that you need when you have the skills.

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I’ve taken to putting an empty cup by the stove when I’m prepping on pasta nights. It helps me remember.

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Ditto that. I see it as I start to take the pot off to drain and grab some pasta water just in case I need it.

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I’m sure you’ll kill it!

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Living vicariously from these great posts. Still doing therapy every other day, so hope to soon be able to cook again. But, therapist did talk me into applying to Meals on Wheels today so that I can get some nutritious meals. It will be interesting to see how that turns out. It will probably be a week or more before they start delivering. Was advised that after application submitted, a case worker will call me to discuss my situation and a decision will be made after that conversation.

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