I do that! :))
As a random aside last year I literally netflix-ed and you tube-d allll of the original julia episodes i could find. When i was very young it was one of the few tv shows we were allowed to watch after school!
Ugh. Sorry to hear this, Gretchen. Hope you’re back in the good graces of the Food Gods and can start eating real food very soon!
I always muck about with my hands in mixing stuff up - probably a lot longer than I should, but I want to make sure everything is well blended. I know “they” tell you not to handle burgers too much, but I figured with meat loaf, it doesn’t matter as much since it’s being cooked to well done status anyway! 
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Oh geez, that sucks!!
Hopefully it’s temporary and you can make the most out of it with homemade baked goods and some crash hot potatoes in the meantime;)
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My very first WFD contribution: pimento cheese biscuit with tasso ham. (The ham is from a local charcuterie place.)
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Breakfast for dinner tonight. I made my favorite quinoa coconut oil granola yesterday so i had some over yogurt with one of the amazing honeycrisps i’ve been getting.
I’ve been making this granola for a few years now and often bring it as a hostess gift.
I swap the ingredients around and use 1cup quinoa (it gets super light and crispy) and 1/3c of the buckwheat groats, i also often swap the maple syrup for brown rice syrup to get chewy clusters. Oh, and half the nuts/seeds i use salted.
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“Don’t overwork the meat” was exactly what was running through my mind, not to mention trying to rush in order to get back to my visiting niece. Should have known not to try a new recipe with other things going on.
I found a bottle of spice in the cabinet, hand labeled “pork rub”, so I rubbed it on a pork tenderloin, seared on the stove and then put in the oven with carrots, red peppers, onions and garlic. Served with salad and wine. It tasted familiar, I think it may be a Bon Appetit recipe. 
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Wow. Will you describe you PC please?
The biscuits are this recipe from Garden and Gun magazine which has become pretty much my favorite biscuit recipe. http://gardenandgun.com/article/pimento-cheese-biscuits
Well, goodness gracious, THAT just got saved. Thanks.
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Unintentionally took a few days off from cooking, but got back into the kitchen yesterday. Dinner was a spicy Thai chicken leg marinated overnight with lemongrass, kaffir lime, fish sauce, chilies, garlic, ginger, coriander, white pepper, and one or two other things I can’t remember. On a bed of stir-fried veg (shiitake, green beans, red pepper, thai bird chilies, shallots) with a crunchy carrot-cucumber-bean sprout slaw.
Earlier in the day I tackled some apples that needed to be used, so I went with gluten- and dairy-free apple-cinnamon mini bundt cakes.
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Okay… I’ve got to ask… I never paid much attention to WFD on CH, but I recently started posting here and I have to say, I’m blown away by the creativity AND the presentation of so many of your dishes. So I’ve gotta know: are you all food professionals? I mean, the careful arrangement of the slaw; the artistic swipe (or whatever it’s called) of a sauce; those carefully placed droplets of whatever-it-is that adds so much flair; even the choice of plates to complement the food – there’s nothing accidental or haphazard about the presentation. And the other thing I’m picking up on is that it sounds like so many of you have the ability to simply sort through your pantries and fridges and come up with an actual meal. I wish I had that talent. My fridge is full, my pantry is overflowing and my spice cabinet has every spice and condiment imaginable, yet I can stare at it all and it doesn’t come together for me as a meal.
A few examples: Goodhealthgourmet says, Earlier in the day I tackled some apples that needed to be used, so I went with gluten- and dairy-free apple-cinnamon mini bundt cakes. If that were me, the apples would probably rot in the fridge. Scubadoo97 writes, Tonight I seared a piece of tuna belly that I had cut from a loin cut a couple of days ago. I cut the wedge in half and glued them together with meat glue to make a round more even shapped piece. Me…? If I buy a piece of meat or fish and don’t use it that very day, it’s likely to sit in the fridge until stuff starts growing on it. And WHAT is “meat glue”??? Mariacarmen – you wrote, “I made eggplant caponata, loosely based on smittenkitchen’s recipe, and doctored up some cauli from last week - just kinda quick pickling it (for a couple days) with red wine vinegar, salt, and olive oil, served chilled.” That’s JUST what I was referring to; I’ve got at least four kinds of vinegar on hand, yet it would never occur to me to use one of them to “doctor up” leftover veggies. And LindaWhit – you just impress me endlessly! I could go on and on…
So before I lose my nerve here, fess up – who’s a pro and who’s just a home cook like me who relies on recipes, shopping trips and of course the kitchen gods to produce a decent meal?
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I confess! I’m a trained chef, though not currently working in a professional kitchen - just picking up the odd personal chef gig here & there. Pretty much all the stuff I post is what I make for myself at home, because when I’m working I don’t keep my phone out and usually don’t have time to stop and take a picture. And yes, my presentation is deliberate, down to the choice of dish and the colors of the ingredients. You get used to making certain choices and thinking critically about plating when you do it for a living, and TBH I just enjoy my food more when I like the way it looks.
As for those apples that you believe would rot in your fridge, I really think having experience in the restaurant business encourages you to be resourceful and find ways to use up whatever you have on hand, not just as a creative exercise but as a way to avoid wasting food. Wasted food = money lost, and with slim profit margins that’s not something most places can afford.
P.S. Meat glue (a.k.a. transglutaminase or Tgase) is an enzyme that bonds amino acids together.
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Love the looks of that salad!!
Thanks for the insight, ghg. I’m already feeling a little less insecure. 
I’m a home cook, for sure, but it’s really just a matter of immersing yourself in food (reading recipes, watching shows, reading CH (yes, CH), and here, watching cooking shows) to get inspiration, and trying new things! if you have all those things in your fridge and cupboards, just use them! read a recipe, substitute something for something you don’t have.
goodhealthgourmet, of course, is a pro, and a fantastically artistic one at that, and I can’t even think of aspiring to her level, but of course even her beautiful creations are fodder - they inspire, even if I couldn’t execute like that.
so go on, jump in!
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Thanks, mariacarmen! I’m kind of a food media whore – I just can’t get enough of it, whether it’s TV, print or online. And if my cookbook collection were an indicator, you’d think you’d stumbled into a gastronomic hideaway. I subscribe to Eat Your Books because I keep telling myself I can plug in my on-hand ingredients and find a dizzying number of ways to use them; only on rare occasions does that actually happen. But I have to say I’m inspired by what I see in this thread, not only by the photos but by the “back stories” – how/why the dish came to be.
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After 4.5 days out on Nantucket eating mostly unmemorable pub-ish food (with Chowpup, we seem to be eating a lot of meals out that could be described that way…but we’re pub people anyway), B was craving something a bit healthier so I made him his favorite faux-Mexican chicken soup. I made a huge pot of broth with Better Than Bullion veggie broth, a generous dash of Korean dashi, splash of shoyu then loaded it up with whatever veggies I had in the fridge - big chunks of carrot, celery, potato, onion, frozen peas, frozen super sweet corn, canned kidney beans, lots of serrano peppers. Trader Joes’ pollo aside then goes in. I let the chicken cook, take it out and slice it up and add it back to the pot. I made sprouted brown and red rice supplemented with locally-grown wheat berries. A big scoop of rice and soup labeled over it hit the spot last night. I eat mostly around the chicken but a piece or two won’t kill me.
I took out “Thug Kitchen” (which is 100% vegan) from the library last week. For the next month or so, I already told B that most of our meals will be coming from there. I know the book is controversial, but I don’t give a damn. Nearly every recipe appeals to me. It’s about time I get back to my veggie roots.
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CindyJ - I too am often taken with the beautiful and creative dishes here (I’m looking at you Goodhealthgourmet) and love looking at them. 
But, I also know that working long hours and trying to get dinner on the table means our meals will never win any awards and most should not be photographed. I do, however, love to cook, read about what other people cook, and get inspiration from others. So, when CH exploded and made posting impossible I came here to continue to participate a bit, lurk a lot, and continue to learn from others. I think there is room for everyone to share and have fun.
In fact, last night’s meal was such a hot mess I was not going to post about it but since I started typing this reply here it goes. Everyone was too tired to care really, so we made a quick green salad, two quesadillas, and reheated buffalo chicken meatballs. Yikes! But, we were both fed and we hit most of the major food groups.
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