Those ribs look great!
Do you have any outdoor/patio space? I use an electric smoker with great results. It uses a minimal amount of wood chips and since there’s no open flame it’s safer for small, more enclosed spaces. I know some people use them in their garages ( door open) when it’s raining.
I’m making Carmine’s pasta pomodoro tonight. Mixed green salad with a citrus vinaigrette on the side.
A buzz buzz busy weekend with not much time spent in the kitchen.
Friday was a snacky ‘meal’ at my friend’s 40th bday party at a local speakeasy, for which she’d made a STO very good hummus, had a few veg plates out (not one person touched the peppers WTH??), and cheese and charcuterie.
Yesterday was our weekly poker game a buddy hosted, and for which we ordered Sichuan delivery – Chongqing chicken, bok choy & shiitake, silken tofu and fish in hot chili oil, house special ho fun, Singapore noodz, fried rice…. I think that’s all. No pics, too busy eating, drinking, playing, and possibly winning. Who knows at this point? 
Plans to make my PIC cook a new recipe were shelved until tomorrow – I still convinced him to make one of my favorite dishes he’s perfected: the fairly basic yet always delicious NYT recipe for stir-fried bok choy. He adds a fiery Sichuan chili sauce to it & I crave it regularly.
My only job tonight will be to inaugurate our spiffy new bamboo steamer with an assortment of dumplings – har gow, seafood & something, and pork, shrimp & asparagus.
That way I can fulfill my annual duty of commenting on & rating the red carpet event for the Grammy 
Pork tenderloin seasoned with olive oil and liberally covered with Penzeys’ Tsardust Memories seasoning blend, then roasted at 350° until done.
Served on maple-ginger mashed sweet potatoes with Plum Ketchup on top, and a sauté of green beans, red bell peppers and onions with Penzeys’ Tuscan Sunset herb blend and a sprinkle of Aleppo pepper, since Penzeys removed it from the mix.
Wine.
Last night we were absolutely honored to attend a friends and family gathering held by the owner of out local sushi bar for the Lunar New Year. There was lots of food, merriment, and karaoke! I pretty much needed to be rolled home. Here’s a picture of the spread that awaited us when we arrived:
And this was before the lobster, crab, and shrimp hit the table! So much food and so much fun!
Tonight I made pozole verde, mostly adapted from Rick Bayless’s Authentic Mexican. I wrote it up for the COTQ thread here. My version includes a ham hock, because this is absolutely braised ham hock weather! There’s also some shrimp. Lots of leftovers for tomorrow and possibly Tuesday!
Those feasts are so lavish! I still remember a Lunar Year celebration from almost 10 years ago. The restaurant owner at a place where we were regulars pulled out all the stops. I’ll never forget the whole chili crab we had. The duck tongues were a little strange…
The roast duck on the table was fantastic (but no tongues!)! Frankie really outdid himself last night; I am going to be thinking about this meal for a while!
Dinnah. The bok choy hit all the spots 
, and we had just enough dumplings from open bags to make a meal of them. The har gow are still our favorite.
And now we wait for the next epi of True Detective followed by CURB 
We enjoyed a nice dinner at Laboratorio Kitchen in Montclair, NJ, including the highlight of the night, an awesome Yellowfin tuna crudo with kumquat, serrano chili, capers, shallots, citrus vinaigrette; NY strip steak au poivre; Grilled black sea bass with sauteed spinach, corn, cherry tomatoes, haricot vert, tomato beurre blanc; Shaved fennel and heirloom orange salad with Moroccan olives, mint, citrus dressing, ricotta salata cheese; ravioli with ricotta, pecorino, vodka sauce, crispy spinach,jumbo lump crab. It all went great with a couple of excellent cabernets.
I think those of us doing most of the cooking for our families can relate. I like my cooking, but I get sick of some of my flavor profiles. Especially braises, soups, and wintery foods I get tired of.
We had our good friends and their kiddos over for an afternoon playdate and dinner. To start, homemade pistachio white bean dip with pita chips and crudités, dill dip, Castelvetrano and Kalamata olives, giant whole dates, and spanakopita fom frozen (not pictured). Main of grilled pork souvlaki, pillowy naan, homemade tzatziki, Fasolakia Lathera (Greek green beans braised in olive oil and tomato with potatoes), and Horiatiki. Wine – probably too much after Dry January. Friend made tahini chocolate chip cookies from NYT (unexpectedly crispy rather than chewy) and brought hummus her kids like.
Brown dinner alert: Made Smitten Kitten’s French onion baked lentils and farro - Amazingly Delicious! like a chewy French onion soup. I added maybe a little too much fino sherry (kept adding it as liquid to soften the grains instead of water) but it was still fantastic. I halved the recipe, used black caviar lentils, and added a little red wine, but otherwise followed the recipe. I’d add a little more liquid next time before serving, and i guess I could have broiled it longer to brown the cheese, but it was otherwise perfect. We both went back for seconds.
That is a gorgeous tortilla!
Leftovers again. Old school tacos with ground beef taco mixture. I was out of cheddar, so Velveeta it was. Unseen but on the plate: homemade refries.
Thanks for the link and rec! Could you translate what she says at the very end about how long to cook the rice? Something about 20 minutes then 30 min (covered the uncovered)? Or maybe “up to” 30 min total? I don’t speak/understand a lot of Spanish but get most of the recipe otherwise.
Also, when she first bakes the chicken, what is she saying about the heat? To use convection (or not)?
I will be making this soon.
Uhhh… you just happen to have venison chili in your freezer? Maybe I could come shop at your freezer!
She says to cook for 20 minutes (covered), but she had it in there for 30. It takes a minimum of 20 minutes to cook, but you can leave it in longer.
As for the oven, because she lives in Spain she’s got a convection oven with bottom and top heating elements, which I definitely do not. I just bake it on the middle rack at 400°.
If have stock you can use that instead of water, but even with just water it’s really tasty. I definitely use more salt when seasoning the water for the rice btw. 
The chicken gets baked for 45 minutes before adding the rice and just boiled liquid.
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